Contrast the experience of slavery as represented by Douglass and Essay

Contrast the experience of slavery as represented by Douglass and Jacobs. In what ways is their understanding of freedom gender - Essay Example The reactions they exhibit to the terrible difficulties they face are driven in large part by their gendered notions of what is expected of them from their masters, what they are capable of given their own physical capacities, and how their emotional, intellectual and spiritual lives are structured by the experiences they undergo as a result of their gender. In this brief paper, the gendered perspectives displayed by Douglass and Jacobs will be reviewed in order to determine what their views were on lives lived as a man and woman robbed of freedom but not of other crucial aspects of personal identity. Douglass gives an account of his life as a slave in and around Baltimore during the mid-1800s. In childhood he was taken away from his mother in order to ensure that the emotional ties between them would be severed, resulting in his growing up unmoored in the world to the love and affection of other slaves. He never knew his father, but suspected that his father was the white owner of h is mother at the time of his birth. These facts are relayed by Douglass with a sorrow that reflects his inability to relate to anyone he might call family. Having been deprived of such, he grew up confused and fearful, worrying that he would be beaten and punished for any infractions against his masters. He attempted to learn basic survival skills from whoever showed him any affection. Since, even in the absence of a natural mother, primary care was given by other female slaves, he learned from the women he called â€Å"aunts† how to get along in the world. Most of his interaction with men revolved around dealings with slave owners and their overseers, who were cruel and inhumane. He relays stories of having watched the women he came to appreciate for their dignity and poise being beaten by the men he learned to fear. This way of interacting with men and women certainly colored his view of his own role in the world as a man as he grew in stature. In Chapter 5 of his account h e relays the one positive early interaction he had with another male, the son of his master, who became his protector of sorts. He relied on this boy to keep him safe from harassment by older boys. It seems significant that it was a white child who played this role for him. Having been born of mixed race and having had his family taken from him, he came to relate to the world in a very isolated fashion. He describes the mealtimes and relays how he learned that the strongest males who ate the fastest were the ones who came to have the most respect among the other slaves, largely because they came to grow in stature and strength. Therefore, as a young child he was taught that males are supposed to be as close to savage as possible, while women and those males who submit to the protection of their white owners are allowed to grow up with some amount of dignity. He was drawn to that notion, and describes the way he prepared his body by scrubbing dead skin off his feet so that he would h ave a better chance of being sold to an owner in the city, where he might expect to have a more comfortable life. Jacobs, on the other hand describe her early childhood in almost bucolic terms, describing a happy life interacting with her grandmother, her mother, and even her mistress/owner. She learned to bake and do domestic chores and lived a life