The Role of Christianity in Southern African American Culture: Harriet A. Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

The Role of Christianity in Southern African American Culture: Harriet A. Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Jacobs in her narrative, Incidents in the Life ofa Slave Girl, specifically depicted the dreadful realities of the slavocracyin the southern slave community by portraying the degradation of femaleslaves living under physical as well as emotional oppression whileexposing the deepening social deterioration and political corruption of thewhite establishment in the antebellum South. Throughout the narrative,the theme of Christianity, a religion used to empower the spiritualsurvival and physical liberation of the female slaves, is central to theperplexing narrative of human bondage. The purpose of this paper is toanalyze the references to Christianity and its imagery that Jacobs hadintentionally utilized in her work, in order to expose the hidden violenceof slavery, as well as to reveal the true nature of hypocritical, whiteChristians living in the South.