Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs

Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass were both slaves who wrote narratives that greatly impacted the world around them. Their narratives were the first insights into the life of a slave for people to read. Their details were quite vivid and depicted the horrors of slavery. Frederick Douglass’s narrative was much longer than Harriet Jacobs and discussed the abuse he endured, his ambition for educating himself, and his struggle for freedom. Harriet Jacobs also goes into detail about the abuse she endured. However, hers could be argued to be on a more devastating level. Male slaves typically are not pursued by their masters for sexual relations. Harriet Jacobs had an owner who was absolutely relentless in his quest to have sex with her.
    Harriet Jacobs notes on the injustice of slavery when it comes to choosing who you want to marry. “If slavery had been abolished, I also, could have married the man of my choice; I could have had a home shielded by the laws; and I should have been spared the painful task of confessing what I am now about to relate; but all my prospects had been blighted by slavery.” Her perspective makes the reader realize how different their lives are and how unjust it is. Her struggle to do what is right ultimately is lost when she realizes that if she does not consent, she will be raped. She wanted some choice in the matter but later regrets her decisions. She begs the reader not to judge her too harshly and it is painful to read. There is something so special about her that you hate that she ever had to go through that struggle.
    Frederick Douglass also gives plenty of details that make you absolutely disgusted with slavery and ashamed that it was apart of our history as a nation. He mentions how children were fed like pigs Colonel Lloyd’s plantation. He says, “We were not regularly allowanced. Our food was coarse corn meal boiled. This was called mush. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down up on the ground. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush…”  I believe that this would have been upsetting for anyone to read, but most for the parents in that time. Frederick Douglass shows how white people wanted to keep the slaves ignorant so that they would hold power. His quest for educating himself is admirable. I enjoyed reading both of their stories. There is something quite moving about reading about the first hand accounts of past slaves.

Elizabeth Stoddard and Margaret Fuller

    
    Elizabeth Stoddard writes about Margaret Huell, a woman who is attending her wealthy aunt in the midst of a law suit, in Lemorne versus Huell. During the short story, we watch Margaret, who is poor, live a life in upper class style and attract the attention of Mr. Uxbridge. Mr. Uxbridge is the lawyer for the client suing her Aunt Eliza. As the story progresses, Mr. Uxbridge falls in love with Margaret. She eventually grows fond of him as he dotes on her but in the end, she has a dream in which she realizes what a scoundrel her husband is. If Margaret’s aunt won the case, Margaret would be rich and therefore he would be as well. Elizabeth Stoddard writes about a woman who is practical and independent. As Margaret is a teacher of music, she hears it for what it is. When Mr. Uxbridge comments on her lack on interest in the music they are listening to, she says, “I teach music. I can not dream over ‘one, two, three.’”
    Margaret responds to Mr. Uxbridge briefly and matter-of-factly. Her character is not like most women who encourage the attention of a man. She states her opinions without any hesitation. Even when Mr. Uxbridge is clearly interested in her she does not help him in expressing himself.
    “If we understand the impression we make upon each other, what must be said?”
    I made no reply, but fanned myself, neither looking at the moon, nor upon the redowa, nor upon any thing.
    He took the fan from me.
    “Speak of yourself,” he said.
    “Speak you.”
    “I am what I seem, a man within your sphere. By all the accidents of position and circumstance suited to it. Have you no learned it?”
    “I am not what I seem. I never wore so splendid a dress as this till to-night, and shall not again.”
    Mr. Uxbridge goes on to declare his love for Margaret and she realizes that he doesn’t even ask whether she loves him. She knows that she should feel wonderful at the opportunity he was offering through marriage, and yet she couldn’t. She thinks to herself, ‘I was not allowed to give myself-- I was taken.’
    Elizabeth Stoddard shows the cold, non-romantic side of courtship. Margaret Huell was all but forced into his arms rather than seeking them out willingly.
    Margaret Fuller claims that if women were sure of what they wanted, they’d be more self-reliant. When the fictional Miranda states the argument that men are vain and want to be more important to women then they should be, she argues that men haven’t acted like that to her. Miranda says, “No, because the position I early enabled to take, was one of self-reliance. And were all women as sure of their wants as I was, the result would be the same. The difficulty is to get them to the point where they shall naturally develop self-respect, the question how it is to be done.”
     Margaret Fuller also describes a marriage that was based on friendship. “It was only friendship, whose basis was esteem; probably neither party knew love, except by name.” I believe the characters in Elizabeth Stoddard’s short story to be ignorant of love as well. They thought they knew it but both were blind.
     Elizabeth Stoddard wrote fiction and Margaret Fuller wrote about the differences between man and woman. While Elizabeth Stoddard’s style was simplistic and flowed smoothly, Margaret Fuller’s style was complicated and confusing. Fuller did make a few points that were both interesting and seemed rather pivotal for her time, but her wording slowed you down. I didn’t care for it. Elizabeth Stoddard weaved her opinions into the story, allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions rather than forcing her ideas on them.