The passage I chose is from chapter 21 in the first paragraph.
In this passage, Jacobs talks about how she would rather be in total darkness sharing her “den” with rats and mice than to be living in slavery. She would rather spend seven years of her life not regularly being able to stand up, without being able to talk to her kids, or without breathing fresh air, than to be Dr. Flint’s well-kept slave.
She establishes her credibility with the reader by explaining how she was a well-treated slave compared to the many other slaves who were “cruelly over-worked”, “lacerated with the whip from head to foot”, “beaten and bruised”, had their “heel-strings cut to prevent” running away, “chained to a log and forced to drag it about”, “toiled in the fields from morning till night”, “branded with hot iron”, or “torn by bloodhounds”. She had always been treated kindly until Dr. Flint. He started sexually abusing her and made sure she knew she had no power or rights. However, even this was a life of little hardships compared to the majority of slaves. By comparing her situation to other slaves and stating how her condition was not so horrible physically, Jacobs establishes her reliability. She presents the facts honestly and without seeming to exaggerate. Jacobs becomes somewhat of an independent observer to describe the physical and mental brutality slaves endured since they were treated as mere possessions, not as human beings.
Jacobs lets readers know that her situation was not a typical “bad” situation for slaves, but yet just knowing she had no rights, she could not own anything, and she was controlled by someone else was cause enough for her to want to runaway. She describes other slave’s horrible situations and outcomes, and tells her own story. She is saying this to let people know that no matter how mistreated one is in slavery, not having any rights is enough for them to try to escape and do anything for freedom. They want to escape so they are no longer considered animals without any feeling. Jacobs wants the Northern whites to empathize with the slaves and see them as human beings. In this way, these northerners might help in the abolitionist cause.
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The passage you picked was a really good one. I definintely understand how she builds her credability with the reader by creating this image of how she was well treated unlike other slaves who had seen the more physical side of slavery. The way she describes with such vivid imagery what some of the other slaves went through just makes me as a reader feel like she's telling the truth by unwilingly creating that picture in my mind. I think that's one of the most important aspect of this book is that it forces you to think about and imagine certain scenarios that you don't want to believe happened. It's good to address these things because it helps us to remember these individuals who didn't have a voice to speak of those horrible truths, and so by remembering we won't repeat the past.
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