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The main purpose of this text is to inform the reader of the true horrors of slavery, but with a specific focus on the experience of slavery from a woman's perspective. What is interesting about this account is the way that Jacobs distinguishes her work from other accounts of slavery which were, in the main, male dominated. Although her account opens with the desire to communicate accurately the experience of being a slave, it becomes clear later on in the text that Jacobs seeks to communicate something that other slavery accounts have not explored: the position of women and their unique experience of slavery. Note how this is signposted in Chapter 14:
Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own.
This then is the clear purpose of Jacobs in this text, and this helps the reader to understand her focus on the compromises that Jacobs is forced into, for example, being used for sex by various individuals. The overwhelming argument of the book is to present the full helplessness of female slaves and to argue that they need to be judged by a different moral code than white women because of the complete lack of power and position they have in society. Note the argument that Jacobs presents in this quote; she acknowledges that slavery is a "burden common to all," but then goes on to argue that female slaves have added complications that are unique to them, making their position even more difficult. This text then offers a crucial female perspective on slavery.
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