Journal 37

Nika Bogoslovsky
11/24/07
Jacobs

“The dream of my life is not yet realized. I do not sit with my children in a home of my own. I still long for a hearthstone of my own, however humble. I wish it for my children’s sake far more than my own. But God so orders circumstances as to keep me with my friend Mrs. Bruce. Love, duty, gratitude, also bind me to her side. It is a privilege to serve her who pities my oppressed people…”

Summary:

This is at the end of Harriet Jacobs’s book when she talks about her freedom. She finally gets the papers but doesn’t want to have to be reminded of the fact that for a long while she didn’t own her own body. She tells of how she and her children live with a friend in New York.

Response:

This is a more bitter than sweet ending. It’s great that she gained her freedom but it really doesn’t sound like she’s completely free and I think she knew this. She lets us know that her dreams have yet to come true, it’s unlikely that they will but she hopes them for her children. She doesn’t have a home or too many things of her own but she does have something to be grateful for, and she knew this as well. There’s something in her voice when she says, “But God so orders circumstances…”, as if she is stuck where she is and she is prevented from getting ahead, which sounds heartbreaking. Then she goes on to talk about her friend and uses words like “serve her” and “bind me to her side”, and though she says she’s grateful, these words bring up images of slavery. I think it’s her way of reminding us that even the so called “freedom” she gained wasn’t much like actual freedom, especially in comparison to a white person, and that it was still extremely difficult to be an African American woman in the north.