Harriet Jacob’s Loss Of Trust
During the course of her life as a slave, Harriet Jacobs was helped by a number of white people. Miss Nash taught her to read. Mrs. Wright hid Harriet when she first ran away. The sea captain and Reverend Durham help her escape to the North. In spite to this, by the time she begins working for the Bruce family in New York City, she says, “I had lost all trust in whites” (p. 115). There are several white people who cause Harriet Jacobs eventually to lose all trust in whites.
Some white people have a small role in causing Harriet Jacobs to lose her trust in whites. One person who made this lost in whites happen is Mrs. Nash when she borrows all the money that Aunt Martha had to buy silver candlesticks, promising that she would pay back, but she never did. In addition, when Mrs. Nash died she does not set Harriet free as she hope. In Mrs. Nash will she broke Harriet’s trust leaving her to Emily, as a piece of property. Another person who equally competes for this lack of trust is Edenton’s sheriff and Reverend Pike. As a slave trader he always likes to perform horrendous public whippings anywhere. Conversely, at the church he tried to convince Harriet and the others slaver that if they act in the manner that their masters said that was correctly, they would have a place in God’s Heaven. Furthermore, a last person who played a small role in Harriet’s lose of trust is Isabel, Mr. Flint’s bride. She arrived at George’s plantation to take her place in the household. She upset Harriet because while she was dividing the food allowance between the slavers she did not let an old slave, which served the family for years, to get food because he was old. Moreover, she said that he was too old to have food allowance. Also, she awfully says “When niggers get too old to work, they should be fed grass” (p. 60).
Dr. Flint is a significant influence in causing Harriet Jacobs not to trust whites. In several ways, he lead Harriet without trust by...
View Full Essay