Popular Culture Review 32.1
a white abolitionist , usually in the form of an introductory letter . Due to the claimed Christianity of both the North and the South , there is a heavy focus on morality and piety , especially in conversation with the deprivation of resources necessary to make an individual “ civilized ” or respectable . Other themes include “ physical brutality , the corruption of families ( usually white ), the separation of families ( usually black ), [ and ] the exploitation of slave workers ” ( Braxton 380 ).
Additionally , slave narratives often follow dichotomous gender roles , illustrated clearly in reading Frederick Douglass ’ s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass ( 1845 ) against Harriet Jacobs ’ s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl ( 1861 ). As John Ernest points out , “ Jacobs has become the exceptional-representative woman to balance Douglass ’ s exceptional-representative man ” ( Ernest 219 ). The genre should not be diminished to two texts , but Jacobs and Douglass ’ s narratives serve as exemplars . While they feature many similar themes , some characteristics are unique to women ’ s slave narratives : “ rape , sexual exploitation , and familial separation in far more direct and intimate encounters than most males experienced or narrated ” ( Fulton 248 ). They also include a larger focus on community and interdependence .
Though slave narratives are autobiographical in nature , they occupy a liminal space between nonfiction and fiction due to both framing and silences . Framing is gender specific . For men like Douglass , there is “ the construct of the ‘ self-made man ,’ a construct most male ex-slaves embrace heartily in their narratives , perhaps because they were prevented from achieving it under slavery ” ( Drake 45 ). Women like Jacobs , on the other hand , borrow from sentimentalism because it “ was a definitive way to reach a large white audience ” ( Carranza 71 ) and they “ faced the prevailing gender ideal of the ‘ Cult of True Womanhood ’ that demanded ‘ true ’ women
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