Carleisha Forteau
English 396
Professor Rojas
Gender, Identity, and Tone in the Biography of the Life of Former Slaves
Both Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano and Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girldiscuss the plight of the enslaved, specifically from the point of view of the perspective author. While Jacobs’ text focuses on her life and experiences as a woman born into slavery in the United States, Equiano’s text details his life as a freeborn individual who was stolen from his home at a young age, and then forced to endure the horrors of slavery until he was subsequently able to gain his freedom. More importantly each narrative grapples with the nuances of building an identity in the face of an institution that is designed to destroy the black individual (as well as the black identity as a collective), and utilizes each author’s lived experiences to create largely popular antislavery texts.
Moreover, reading Equiano’s text was shocking, as his self-representation and ability to humanize those that played a part in reinforcing the institution of slavery differed greatly from other slave narratives. When compared to Harriet Jacobs’ text (a text with a similar white, mostly female, Christian audience) his sympathy toward those that contributed to an institution that once limited his freedoms, and relative submissiveness in the tone of his text, work to reveal the complexities behind gender and the black identity in the face of a white audience.
Furthermore, looking at these texts through the lens that is Christina Sharpe’s Into the Wake: On Blackness and Being, providesthe reader with a space to examine the presence of “heteronormative Euro-gender relations” (Sharpe 85) in each text, and illuminates the undoing of identity that both Equiano and Jacobs experience as a result of slavery.
When reading Equiano’s text tone provides a substantial framework into Equiano’s conception of identity. On numerous occasions throughout the text Equiano adopts a tone that displays sympathy and compassion for those that enslaved him:
“I had the stronger desire to resemble them; to imbibe their spirit, and imitate their manners; I therefore embraced every occasion of improvement; and every new thing that I observed I treasured up in my memory. I had long wished to be able to read and write; and for this purpose I took every opportunity to gain instruction, but had made as yet very little progress. However, when I went to London with my master, I had soon an opportunity of improving myself, which I gladly embraced. Shortly after my arrival, he sent me to wait upon the Miss Guerins, who had treated me with much kindness when I was there before; and they sent me to school.” (Equiano 46)
Equiano’s preoccupation with the spirit, manners, and his description of his “treasured memories” with his masters juxtaposes the heteronormative, European conceptions that are normally embodied in texts written by white male authors. Building off of this, Sharpe’s text discusses the way that “heteronormative Euro-gender relations” (85) work to strip black women of their femininity. This concept is one that can be utilized inversely in order to strip black men of their masculinity and is apparent in the nature of Equiano’s work.
Equiano has to carefully choose language that is safe and adopt a tone in his text that resembles a more feminine writing style (in terms of the typical heteronormative Euro-gender relations) in order to make it possible to exist in that space. By utilizing this tone, he is effectively able to change not only his audience’s, but society’s, perception of him. Furthermore, it is through Equiano’s effective emasculation of himself that he is able to convey his text’s antislavery sentiments in a non-threatening manner.
In terms of constructing an identity, it is easy to see how Equiano’s own sense of identity is built entirely around his self-identification as a “British gentleman” and “Christian”. He embraces British people and culture, seeing as he is so far removed from his own culture, and anyone like himself. Instead, Equiano chooses to model himself after figures like the Guerins sisters and Captain Pascal, and due to the absence of any black figures in his life, has trouble connecting with other black people:
“I was one day in a field belonging to a gentleman who had a black boy about my own size; this boy having observed me from his master’s house, was transported at the sight of one of his own countrymen, and ran to meet me with the utmost haste. I not knowing what he was about turned a little out of his way at first, but to no purpose: he soon came close to me and caught hold of me in his arms as if I had been his brother, though we had never seen each other before.” (Equiano 52)
Equiano’s instant apprehension upon seeing this black boy marks a lack of connection with other black people, as well as an absence of recognition when it comes to his own identity. His reaction greatly opposes that of the other boy who sees Equiano and immediately recognizes him as someone who is similar to his own self. In this case the undoing of Equiano’s identity is by no choice of his own, as his lack of connection comes about as a result of being alienated from his people at a young age.
As for Jacobs’ text, her tone differs greatly from that of Equiano’s. Jacobs offers an unwavering critique about the institution of slavery based on her experiences, and her use of language is not as carefully considered or as safe as Equiano’s: “I had not lived fourteen years in slavery for nothing. I had felt, seen, and heard enough, to read the characters, and question the motives, of those around me. The war of my life had begun; and though one of God’s most powerless creatures, I resolved never to be conquered.” (Jacobs 21)
There is noticeable difference between Equiano and Jacobs tone and word choice, which becomes apparent in the underlying ferocity behind Jacobs’ words. Additionally, Jacobs’ assertion that she learned to “read the characters, and question the motives, of those around [herself]” draws parallels to Sharpe’s ideas on how language is used to control and distort the black identity: “we can also apprehend this in the metaphorical sense in how, regarding blackness, grammatical gender falls away and new meanings proliferate… we see again and again how, in and out of the United States girl doesn’t mean ‘girl’ but, for example, ‘prostitute’ or ‘felon’…” (77)
Through Jacobs’ questioning of the messages being communicated to her about her own identity, she is able to effectively disrupt the narrative surrounding the black identity. Jacobs’ uses of words like “war”, “powerless”, and “conquered” work to rewrite said narrative, and in this way, she is able to let her true sense of identity flourish. Furthermore, Jacobs even goes as far as to directly hold white slave owners responsible for their actions, referring to them as “fiends who bear the shape of men.” (30) In this instance Jacobs is able to reverse the undoing of her own identity by labeling white, slave owning, men as “fiends.” Through the power of tone and word choice Jacobs is able to rewrite the narrative surrounding slavery and the male slave owner.
Moreover, according to Sharpe “Africans packed into the hold of the ship were marked according to Euro-Western definitions not as male and female but as differently sized and weight property.” (72) Sharpe goes on to include a quote from Hortense Spillers’ “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book”that states: “we lose at least gender difference in the outcome and the female body and the male body become a territory of cultural and political maneuver not at all gender-related, gender specific.” (Spillers 206) In Jacobs’ case slavery not only strips her of her gender through the objectification of the black body, but it also works to undo her status as a mother and woman. However, it is through Jacobs’ relationship with her audience that the facets of the slave woman’s identity (as a mother and woman) are illuminated.
Furthermore, the powerful assertions made by Jacobs are made possible by the fact that Jacobs is a woman.While Equiano tries to relate to his audience through his sense of identity as a British gentleman and a Christian, Jacobs’ gender allows her to critique the institution of slavery as she is able to use womanhood (as well as her status as a woman and mother) to garner sympathy from her audience. Additionally, by establishing a connection with her audience, based on their shared plight as women, Jacobs is able to once again reclaim an identity that is actively being suppressed.
Ultimately, when looking at both Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano and Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girleach author’s variation in tone illuminates the complexities behind gender, and the black identity, in the face of a white audience. Furthermore, through the lens of Christina Sharpe’s Into the Wake: On Blackness and Being, the reader is able to unpack the ways in which tone and word choice are telling of how the black identity is formed. Additionally, tone and word choice prove to be a powerful means of controlling and destroying the black identity. Interestingly, while Equiano’s tone indicates that he chooses to sacrifice his masculinity in order to embrace his sense of identity, Jacobs is able to transform the language surrounding her own existence, in order to further define her own identity. Additionally, Jacobs uses language to condemn the actions of white male slave owners. In the same way that white slave owners utilize language to control the perception of the black identity, Jacobs’ actively changes the discourse surrounding those that reinforce the institution of slavery.
Work Cited
Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Dodo Press, 2007.
Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Penguin Books, 2000.
Sharpe, Christina. Into the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Duke University Press, 2016.
Spillers, Hortense J. “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book.” Diacritics, vol. 17, no. 2, 1987, pp. 65–81.
