Context: Harriet Jacobs, writing under the pseudonym Linda Brent, was reluctant to share her story, and did so only with great encouragement from others (see the letters from our historical context readings). If contemporary readers are still deconstructing the misogyny that fuels the victim blaming of those who experience sexual harassment, stalking, and assault (and we definitely are), then it’s easy to imagine the internalized bias and prejudice held by nineteenth century women who were products of a patriarchal society that limited rights for women and who largely considered sex a taboo topic for either private or public discourse. Those women of the North that Jacobs identified as her target audience in her preface were also usually ignorant of the nuances of the slaveholding system, which made them apathetic, passive, complicit in returning slaves through the Fugitive Slave Act, and/or likely to believe the lies told by white slaveholders about what life was like in the states where slavery remained legal. And of course they also held racist views about black women. In short, Jacobs had her work cut out for her. That’s where rhetorical tactics enter the picture.
Goal: For your paper, answer this question: How does Jacobs attempt to persuade potentially supportive audiences to advocate on behalf of enslaved women? Your job is to identify the rhetorical tactics–the how–which means your argument will be to articulate the specific ways that she attempts to reach her audience, including but not limited to creating a trustworthy persona, reaching heads and hearts with information and stories, direct appeals to audience, plot and character development, and other ways to humanize all involved—those enslaved, those enslaving, and those readers who believe they stand outside the system.
Caution: Please do rely on your training in how writers create trustworthy personas (ethos) and incorporate appeals to both the head and heart (logos and pathos). But don’t use any of that language in parentheses (ethos, logos, and pathos) and don’t simply replace those words with “emotional appeals,” etc. All texts use emotional, logical, and ethos appeals; so what? What does Jacobs’ text do specifically?
Choose a focus, theme, or thread (Don’t try to do everything! This doesn’t mean that you won’t touch on all three appeals—you may or may not—but that you shouldn’t try to tackle all of her various tactics.). I want you to transfer those analysis skills from composition (or from your high school literature class) and that you just practiced with your Frederick Douglass paper. But if you did not learn about these concepts in composition or do not remember what you learned, don’t worry! You can still write an effective analysis paper!
