From the times of ancient Egypt to the present day, millions of slaves have lived and died unnamed to history. Their lives did not belong to them, their bodies did not belong to them, and even more so they did not possess their names, they were renamed as easily as their masters wanted. The brightest story of those who remained in the memory of humanity is something more than the topic of buying and selling a "two-legged cattle", a helpless property. The first works that laid the foundation of African American literature were slave narratives. These are autobiographical stories told to white copyist editors or written by fugitive or freed slaves themselves. Most often, the authors of such stories became men, but there is a small number of works of this genre written by women. These include Incidents in the Life of a Slave by Harriet Jacobs, investigated in this analysis using the stylistic-comparative method, the motivational method and the biographical method. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Harriet Ann Jacobs was a black slave born into captivity from the early 19th century. She was born into the family of the mulatto roofer and the tavern slave, and they belonged to different owners. Harriet's mother died when Harriet was six years old, and her mother's lover took the child to her upbringing. This was a colossal success for the future writer, because she learned to read with her mistress – in slave stories the authors remember how they could learn to write and read, they certainly remember the first books or the letter they read; the most important books for them, which symbolize the letter itself, reflect on the role of literacy, letters, books in their life. The lover died when Harriet was twelve. According to the will, Harriet should have passed into the possession of her lover's mother, but things change so much that Harriet finds herself the slave of James Norcom. He has been harassing Harriet from the moment she let him onto her property. She also denied his requests to marry anyone. In 1861, Harriet Jacobs published a book under a different name in which she spoke frankly about the rape of black slaves. He remembered with bitterness how the masters talked about Christian faith and virtues, but silently violated the commandments when it came to slaves - the Christians themselves, and confessed the faith at the insistence of the masters. Like the pagans of ancient Rome, many owners enjoyed bloody spectacles. And every slave owner, without exception, raped his slaves, considering his own children from the slaves themselves, considering them not of his own flesh and blood. The book came out incredibly scandalous, not because of the general information that was probably known to many, but because of its frank presentation. In addition to black women, during the colonization of America, Irish and gypsy women were constantly raped. They were frankly accustomed to obtaining more black slaves, subjecting them to men from an early age. The mulatto daughters of these European slaves were used in the same way and from the same years. In the nineteenth century this practice had already disappeared, but its victims were thousands of girls and women, due to the greed of traders and slave owners. Like any other type of narrative biography, slave narratives were constructed according to certain rules. For example, in the genre of slave tales, whose authors were men, literacy becomes the main tool in the fight against the system. Harriet Jacobs deviates from this rule andgives birth to another tradition, which found its embodiment in the works of subsequent generations of writers - African-American women. The main idea that runs through the author's entire work is the idea of ​​surviving the immeasurability of the pain of so many men and women in slavery. According to her, the woman becomes a slave not because she is subjected to all the trials that affect men (overwork, hunger, flogging, etc.), but she also becomes a victim of even more serious torture, reserved by the slave owners especially for her. According to Harriet, slavery was much worse for women than for men, because they suffered much greater suffering and humiliation, especially their own. By this torture he means forced sexual slavery, which slaves were forced to endure. Even if their whole nature was opposed, in one way or another the hosts forced them to deal with another part of being Southern. The authors try to reconsider these oppositions and demonstrate (with the example of their heroines) that most slaves did not accept the fate imposed by the slave owners, but maintained their identity (both personal and ethnic). Slave owners erased all possible sources of identification, even those given by nature, such as sex and age. This practice began in childhood, when slave children of both sexes walked almost naked due to lack of clothing, then adult men and women (not related by kinship) often slept in the same room. When valuing property, women were subjected to the same degrading scrutiny as men. Most male writers were silent on this side of slavery. They were forced to adhere to a defensive position so that with one careless word they would not cast a shadow on their entire race and preferred to avoid topics that could provoke a negative attitude towards the African-American race. Harriet Jacobs could not follow their example if she wanted to truthfully describe her story, because the entire life of a slave was part of what was considered taboo in white society. Not surprisingly, when describing the shameful practice of sexual violence, she does not name the specific names of women known to her, but simply uses the pronoun “she” in a general sense. With Warner, Jacobs changed the names of towns and called all his family members by fictitious names, because he believed he was acting humanely towards other people. Furthermore, preserving their anonymity not only serves as protection for runaway slaves and those who helped them, but also a proposal for symbolic names to strengthen the role of some figures. Harriet Jacobs, fearing publicity, did not have the means to publish her book under her real name, so she took the pseudonym Linda Brent, by which her heroine became known. In her heroine, the writer shows another way of dealing with the system. The very beginning of his narrative deviates from the models accepted at the time: after the first sentence, which begins with “I was born”, a small story about his parents follows, with a reference to his white father. She didn't even change the first sentence, but then she talks about the happiest time of her life – her childhood when she was six years old, when she still couldn't understand her social status, because she lived in her family, surrounded by love and caring for black parents. The story has its own emotional weight, especially when it comes to forbidden sexual relations with a white man and the torment caused by his shame. The narrative tells about life through the eyes of a slave, his existence and the world, with details regarding personal life and perception, time and place, and the sequence of events. Harriet was a beautiful woman, often referred toshe regretted, the Lord had given her beauty, but this turned out to be the greatest curse for her. Harriet's constant resistance to Dr. Flint didn't mean she didn't pay attention to other men. How could a poor slave fight with her master and take control of him? She decided to choose her own lover (an unmarried white man who showed interest in her), in this she felt something similar to freedom. She fell in love with her old friend, a free carpenter, who made her a marriage proposal and intended to buy her back. Harriet knew that Flint would not agree to sell her and she would only marry a slave. However, Harriet anxiously asked Dr. Flint for permission to marry. According to Jacobs, Doctor Flint jumped on her like a tiger and hit her very hard, her fear did not even allow her to control her anger because it was the first time he had hit her, and when she recovered, she exclaimed that she despises him. For nearly a week, Dr. Flint glared at her and remained silent. Soon, when he saw her talking to her lover on the street, he cursed her and beat her. Almost immediately Harriet repented, was burned with shame, because, by punishing the owner, she punished herself; because of her act, she lost what her relatives valued her for, she humiliated herself, being equal to many other slaves. In desperation, Harriet asked her lover to move to a free state, saying that she would soon come to him with her brother. However, flight was impossible. Harriet was under constant surveillance, she had no money. Eventually, Harriet abandoned the dream and chose a different path. The narrative is vibrantly emotional, full of metaphors and comparisons: "tendrils of the heart", "pious soul", "merciless hand". The descriptions are quite detailed, the sentences have an easy to understand construction used to convey emotions and feelings, images and phenomena. The author's use of language shapes the mood of the narrative, she hoped that "the dark clouds around me would turn out to be a bright covering." She is very expressive, constantly asks questions (including rhetorical ones), exclaims and helps to feel the atmosphere, to visit those places she talks about. Of course, there is a place where there is a certain "imposition" of the author's experiences, however it creates mood, transmits sensations. Some slaves committed suicide but some found refuge in faith. Christianity turned out to be the religion of slaves in the South; religion provided slaves not only with the ability to escape the trials of everyday life, but also with the opportunity to assert themselves as individuals. That is why, for the Africans who found themselves in the New World and their descendants, the Bible was for a long time the only book of all time. Harriet Jacobs recalls how voluntarily, diligently and successfully, secretly from the whites, under the real threat of cruel chariots for both teacher and student, fifty-three-year-old Uncle Fred, who really wanted to learn to read the Bible, was learning to read, to live according to the word of God and to be closer to God. Jacobs herself values ​​literacy, the ability to read as "the Source of Life for souls who thirst for it". In the Bible, they, the newly converted Christians, sought the highest truth, the revelation of God, the Faith. The Christian religion and the Bible have had a profound effect on their worldview, moral values, life behavior, language and artistic creation. Jacobs debunks the hypocritical religiosity of slave owners and contrasts it with the sincere, profound and human faith of slaves. The contrast that runs through the entire Incidents of the Life of a Slave Girl concerns the true Christian virtues of her grandmothers and the foundations of life withDr. Flint lived: hypocrisy, pharisaism, greed and cruelty. Jacobs devotes a separate Chapter XIII to the issue of “Church and Christianity,” with spiritualism becoming a leitmotif, satirically depicting Satan: “Old Satan is a busy old man; Throw those blocks all my way; But Jesus is my best friend; He rolls the blocks away.” Jacobs used the spiritual as a satirical setting for the episode, which she often recalls as undeniable proof of the injustice of slaveholders. During the prayer meeting in the Methodist Church, led by a man who bought and sold slaves, who had fallen into the spiritual with brothers and sisters - the parishioners of his church, ordered God to pray to an unhappy slave mother, who the had last baby sold the day before. The voice of this miserable man and the cry of his mother, the contrast between his true faith and the deepest pain are his pompous and hypocritical teachings. The whole chapter is a convincing and emotional proof of a paradox: not illiterate slaves, but slave owners – pagans who do not know the moral commandments of Christ. It is known that the foundations of self-identification are laid in childhood thanks to the child's communication with parents and other family members. Family relationships play an important role in a person's development; they help not only to self-determine but also simply to survive. The authors describe the life and relationships of their parents since most of them have dark-skinned fathers (only M. Prince is a white daughter), they know the family history (parents tell their children about sold family members, preserving them, which means binding relatives). On the pages of the authors' stories, various relatives are constantly mentioned who with words and deeds try to teach the heroines how to live (first of all it concerns the moral and religious aspect), to assist them. In case the slave's mother died at an early age or they were separated from each other early, the mother's image may appear to the daughter in visions and guide her, or a kind woman may replace the mother. It was Harriet's grandmother who taught her to behave, told her about the need for moral and spiritual purity, about respect for the laws of morality. As for relatives, the grandmother showed her granddaughter what family is and how to treat relatives. She worked tirelessly to redeem her son, her children in return took care of her and paid with the same love. Jacobs attempts to deconstruct the central opposition “white - black” and shows the discrepancy between skin color and the inner essence expressed by this color, a simple juxtaposition of the adjectives “white” and “black” to describe a person: “ This white brother with a black face and a black heart has approached us.” That is, he wants to demonstrate that skin color does not determine the essence of a person, and this means that this opposition is wrong. Furthermore, in slave stories written by female authors, we see heroines who represent the community (i.e. people who have managed to preserve ethnic identity). Even in slavery they form their own identity under the influence of the family and the cultural heritage of the entire community; struggling to preserve their self-esteem through faith, they decide to flee, first and foremost, for the sake of their children. Consequently, Linda Brent in her work makes family, kinship and motherhood the main tools in the fight against slavery, the source from which a woman draws the strength to endure everything and fight to the end. She needed freedom just to be able to be a mother and lead a life worthy of respect. All the torment he had to endure was multiplied a hundredfold.