"Free at Last," by Harriet Jacobs, tells the story of a slave girl named Linda. A slave girl whose mistress is unable to keep her due to her husband's death. She was sold to a man whom she never met. She never met him because with the help of her mistress, she leaves the city to avoid becoming this man's slave. She stays away from her mistress" house until the mistress is able to buy her freedom.
Reading this story made me realize how important friendship is. The thought that a slave girl and a mistress who owned her could have a friendship seems absurd for me. The mistress could have easily told the new owner where Linda was, but she did not. Instead, she saved her money to buy her freedom.
What struck me was when Linda said, "The more difficult it was for me to consider myself an article of property; and to pay money to those who had so grievously oppressed me seemed like taking my sufferings the glory of triumph." I could not imagine having everyone view me as a piece of property. That had to take a lot of strength to allow everyone to see you as property when you know in your heart, you breathe the same as them and the only reason you are considered to be a piece of property is because the color of your skin.
It must also have taken a lot of emotional strength to have to buy your freedom. Freedom is not something that is bought nor given to you. It is in your innate right to have freedom. Therefore, to have to buy your freedom from someone who "owns" degrades you and does make you appear to be property since you have to pay someone to let you free. .
I think that is the only part of the story that I found to be offensive. Other than that, I found it heartwarming to read a story about a slave that was not all about how bad they were treated. This is the first one I read that focused on the friendship between a slave and the mistress. I guess that is because these friendships were rarely found between a slave-owner and a slave.
FREE AT LAST "Free at last" an extract from "incidents in the life of a slave girl (1861) written by Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) describe how Jacobs struggled all her life to become free. This narrative written during the civil war record's a pattern of horror and abuse as to stun modern readers. ...
Enlightenment according to Kant is the progress of a society through free activity of rational thought and intellectual assessment. ... He states that "the public use of one's reason must always be free and it alone can bring about enlightenment among men." ... I could not argue with his supporters that claim that he is the last philosopher. ...
Land Of the Free "Free at Last," college students shout as they watch their parents drive away from their new college dorm. ... Compatibilism is a likable explanation to the problem of free will, because it allows one to hold onto their belief of causal determinism and to suppose free will exists. In other words, "determined acts are free acts" (189). ... The lack of determinism is not necessary for free will to exist. ... People customarily behave as if everyone were free. ...
The battle lasted about an hour and there were only five patriot causalities. ... Finally, the British gave up in the North because the Battle of Monmouth was the last major Revolutionary War battle in the North. ... In 1848 when the hospital opened, New Jersey became the last state in Northeast to provide health care for mentally ill. ... "In 1804 New Jersey passed a gradual abolition act requiring that all children born of slaves be free" (Stansfield, 131). ... New Jersey townspeople would stop the wagons, freed the slaves, and hauled the slave catcher before a magistrate! ...
The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper, is a tale of the 18th century frontier during the French and Indian War and how the different cultures of the English, French, Indians, and colonists collided. The story centers on the last two people of a once great tribe, the Mohicans, and their adopted white son and brother. ... Hawkeye, Uncas and Chingachgook were hot on his trail, and Hawkeye went to plead with the wise man for their lives, he granted and set Hawkeye and Duncan free, gave Alice for Magua's wife and Cora was to be sacrificed for Magua's suffering. ... The s...
The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper, is a tale of the 18th century frontier during the French and Indian War and how the different cultures of the English, French, Indians, and colonists collided. The story centers on the last two people of a once great tribe, the Mohicans, and their adopted white son and brother. ... Hawkeye, Uncas and Chingachgook were hot on his trail, and Hawkeye went to plead with the wise man for their lives, he granted and set Hawkeye and Duncan free, gave Alice for Magua's wife and Cora was to be sacrificed for Magua's suffering. ... The s...
Gulliver sets up a row of Brobdingnagian dominoes and then arranges the series so that when the last one falls, it brushes the first of a row of normal-sized dominoes. The normal dominoes fall one after another, until the last one hits a big domino, which starts a second row of Brobdingnagian dominoes falling. ... The girl may be free because she feels free. The problem with this is that we can not say we are free just because we feel free. ... "We will call it T1, and that lasts until he finally hands the apple to Aphrodite at T2. ...
Contained in the story of Exodus are many examples of Moses" sacrifices and the hardships he endured while freeing the Hebrews. ... Moses was commanded to go to the Pharaoh and request that the Hebrews be set free to worship their God. ... Moses was discouraged because the people he was commanded to free did not want to be freed, and, even if they did, Moses is the last person that they wanted to be freed by. ... The last plague was what made the Pharaoh change his mind about the Hebrew's freedom. ... However, Moses was not the perfect, sin-free prophet, in the sense he murdered a man dir...
"The vice presidents of this period filled an important social role, freeing the presidents form the necessity of attending social functions- (Sobel 237). ... Coolidge was the last president to spend hours standing in the White House lobby greeting and shaking hands with casual visitors on their tours. He was the last president to have only one secretary and no other aides- (Sobel 235). ... The only race related topic that has been a hot item of interest in the last few elections was affirmative action, and it has almost been forgotten for more important topics. ...
