Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an autobiography of Harriet Ann Jacobs and it was published in 1861. The aspect of slaves considered as possessions in this novel will be compared to the way this topic has been dealt in Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain, published in 1894. The comparison of these two texts will be from the point of view of the author and whether the author was a victim of the circumstances or a mere observer.
The autobiography charts the experiences of Jacobs according to the span of her lifetime: childhood, adolescence, motherhood, and old age. The fear of being separated from family takes root early in the novel. Jacobs (1861) “The slave child had no thought for the morrow; but there came that blight, which too surely waits on every human being born to be a chattel” (p.15). However, slaves are not considered human enough to care for family ties otherwise they would never have been treated like animals to be sold for profit.
Jacobs does not only list her struggles during slavery but also mentions the incident with Benjamin which leads him into trouble with his master. Though Benjamin tries to escape to the North but he fails and his master celebrates when his “human chattel” (p.40) is dragged towards the jail in chains. Even the way runaway slaves are captured and brought back towards their rightful owners draws the imagery of a wild cow which escapes into the neighbouring barn and everybody in the nearby barns gets together to chase the wild cow back to its owner’s barn. In both the incidents of Jacobs and Benjamin, the slaves are a victim of their circumstances and as the story is told from their point of view, the reader can empathize with them.
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Mr. Driscoll in Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain is the Judge in Dawson’s Landing. As he is a man of means he owns slaves. One day he finds out that some of his money is missing and one of the slaves must be thieving from him. So he threatens to sell them down by the river. The slaves confess that they had been taking money. He says that “I will sell you here though you don’t deserve it. You ought to be sold down the river . . . He knew, himself, that he had done a noble and gracious thing, and that night he set the incident down in his diary, so that his son might read it in after years, and be thereby moved to deeds of gentleness and humanity himself” (Twain, 1894, p.60). Consider the stereotypes in this incident where the slave holder is benevolent and the slaves are ungracious thieves. Also, the author is a mere observer in this novel but the white man is in charge of the situation and hence, changes the course of the lives of his slaves after he sells them.
It is of prime importance to notice that the Judge does not consider the grossness of possessing humans the way he possesses property. Also, the self-congratulatory aspect of Mr. Driscoll showcases the mentality of all the slave holders who placed themselves on a higher pedestal than the slaves because firstly, they were white, and secondly, they possessed land. Also, the Judge could have induced morality and responsibility in his slaves without exercising his power to sell them as human chattel if he really was a thoughtful and benevolent human being. On the other, this is another way in which Pudd’nhead Wilson and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl differ as Mr. Driscoll looks at the situation from a vantage point, whereas Jacobs tells her story from experience.
In conclusion it can be said that both Pudd’nhead Wilson and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl revolve around slave holders, slaves considered as chattel. However, it is the differing point of view of the author which makes both these texts unique. As Jacobs experienced all the incidents written in her novel, it is easy for the readers to empathize with her and to vividly imagine the times of slavery in USA. Mark Twain’s novel is based on fictitious characters and thus the readers have a bird’s eye view about the slaves and their owners in America.
References
- Jacobs, Harriet Ann. (1861). Incidents in the life of a slave girl. Boston, Thayer & Eldridge.
- Twain, Mark. (1894). Pudd’nhead Wilson. New York: Charles L. Webster and Company.
