Harriet Jacobs

The concept of value and worth is one that presents itself every day as consumers rush to Starbucks to buy a five-dollar blended coffee before work or to purchase that seven-dollar juicy double-double meal at In-N-Out for lunch. The thought of owning another person seldom occurs to the average person, however, the idea of worth or value in employment is ever on the mind of the individual pursuing an education to ensure prestigious employment. In the 21st century the mere thought of slavery appalls us, yet, as American citizens, it is a part of the history of the United States. In her autobiography: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs specifies the sum paid for the purchase of her younger brother:

"Though only ten years old, seven hundred and twenty dollars were paid for him,"

the value deemed acceptable for a young African American slave. Today, $720.00 could represent the monthly rent of a studio apartment, however, to gain perspective, $720.00 in 1820 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $15,836.68. For nearly $16,000.00 an individual could purchase an economical vehicle. Would anyone today value a car more than a person? It is possible, yet most would agree that a person is more valuable.

Born into slavery, on February 11, 1813, in Edenton, NC, Harriet Jacobs eventually became an American abolitionist and author. She had a brother, John S. Jacobs, and two children: Louisa Matilda Jacobs, and Joseph Jacobs. Her autobiography was published under the pseudonym Linda Brent, in 1861. However, many believed that the work was fiction until it was authenticated by scholars in 1981. This slave narrative reveals the sexual abuse of slaves and the anguish felt by slave mothers when their children are taken and sold. For Harriet Jacobs, there was something that she valued even more than anything else:

"I had resolved that I would be virtuous, though I was a slave."

Most female slaves were subjected to sexual assault and the harsh realities of carrying a child to term that may be removed from her arms to be sold to another slave owner, forever separating mother from child. She fought against the continual advances of her master but did eventually have children with another man, hoping to deter the advances of her owner. Besides virtue, Jacobs valued freedom and desired freedom for herself and her children. On the occasion of the Christening of one of her children, a friend gifted a gold chain for her baby to wear, Jacobs refused, revealing that even this tiny chain was too much of a reminder of the chains of slavery:

"How earnestly I prayed that she might never feel the weight of slavery's chain, whose iron entereth into the soul!"

a desire of a virtuous mother.

Near the end of her narrative, Jacobs shares the events that occurred prior to her bonds of slavery being broken, sharing the offering of a dear female friend who desired to purchase her freedom. Jacobs asked her not to make that sacrifice, yet the friend completed the purchase anyway. The price paid was $300.00, a significantly lower amount than what was spent when her brother was sold at the age of ten. This was only possible because the owners

"were short of funds and had need of my value, as they valued me; and that was by dollars and cents" -

her value was no greater than her purchase price. However, her friend recognized her value as an individual, as a woman, as a mother, as a friend, for

"When [she] reached home, the arms of [her] benefactress were thrown round and our tears mingled."

One cannot look upon this scene without reflecting on the great parable of the Prodigal Son, whose father wept at the return of his lost son, giving him a ring and a robe, fully rejoicing with friends and family. For the worth of souls is great!