the_most_happy_1533's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
emdiddy01's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
madiswanreads's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
sassyredca's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
iffer's review against another edition
4.0
I'm both embarrassed and incensed that I didn't know that this book existed until literally this week. I couldn't help being reminded of The Diary of Anne Frank because Harriet Ann Jacobs (aka Linda) spent seven years living in a crawl space to keep away from her cruel master and protect her children. Yet, nearly all school children read at least an excerpt of The Diary of Anne Frank, and yet a paltry number of people have probably heard of this book. The difference, of course, is that American education loves to point out other countries' dehumanizing behavior and portray America as a savior (despite the fact that the Nazis used American anti-Blackness to develop the "final solution"), yet not confront its own original sins.
While reading this, something finally clicked, or perhaps broke, inside of me. It is appalling but not surprising that this book is still relevant today. For one thing, the United States has been a country in which slavery is legal for far longer than it has been illegal. For another, reading this first-hand account of Jacobs' experiences drives home the way in which many white people will do anything to keep from relinquishing their power over Black people, even to their own financial detriment, and when they are given concessions, they merely change the rules of the game. Jacobs sees this repeatedly, when Black people or their supposed allies purchase their freedom, only to have their freedom, which shouldn't be able to be bought and sold in the first place, revoked. Jacobs had a "good life," in her own words, and eventually gets a "happy" ending, in comparison to many other enslaved people that she knew during her lifetime, and yet the fact that she had to endure what she did is unconscionable.
I couldn't help but draw parallels between current experiences of Black incarceration, current endeavors such as "Land Back" for indigenous peoples, and Jacobs' experiences. Over and over and over and over again, Black and indigenous people endure, attempt to "buy" back what should've always been theirs (freedom and land), only to be thwarted by white supremacy and colonialism. Ava DuVernay reminds us in 13th (paraphrased) that racism is plastic; it is like a hydra, and if you cut off one head two more will grow back in its place, which is why we need sustained pressure at the heart of the problem. People often tritely say that "those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it," and reading this book was a powerful reminder of how deep the historical trauma of Black Americans, and the internalized dominance of white Americans, goes.
P.S. This work is probably also lesser known because the author is a woman (yay sexism + racism), who spent most of her "free" life working as a (nurse)maid and taking any jobs she could in order to save money for her children's education, as well as her reluctance to share her personal story with a wide audience, rather than becoming well-known in abolitionist circles like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth.
While reading this, something finally clicked, or perhaps broke, inside of me. It is appalling but not surprising that this book is still relevant today. For one thing, the United States has been a country in which slavery is legal for far longer than it has been illegal. For another, reading this first-hand account of Jacobs' experiences drives home the way in which many white people will do anything to keep from relinquishing their power over Black people, even to their own financial detriment, and when they are given concessions, they merely change the rules of the game. Jacobs sees this repeatedly, when Black people or their supposed allies purchase their freedom, only to have their freedom, which shouldn't be able to be bought and sold in the first place, revoked. Jacobs had a "good life," in her own words, and eventually gets a "happy" ending, in comparison to many other enslaved people that she knew during her lifetime, and yet the fact that she had to endure what she did is unconscionable.
I couldn't help but draw parallels between current experiences of Black incarceration, current endeavors such as "Land Back" for indigenous peoples, and Jacobs' experiences. Over and over and over and over again, Black and indigenous people endure, attempt to "buy" back what should've always been theirs (freedom and land), only to be thwarted by white supremacy and colonialism. Ava DuVernay reminds us in 13th (paraphrased) that racism is plastic; it is like a hydra, and if you cut off one head two more will grow back in its place, which is why we need sustained pressure at the heart of the problem. People often tritely say that "those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it," and reading this book was a powerful reminder of how deep the historical trauma of Black Americans, and the internalized dominance of white Americans, goes.
P.S. This work is probably also lesser known because the author is a woman (yay sexism + racism), who spent most of her "free" life working as a (nurse)maid and taking any jobs she could in order to save money for her children's education, as well as her reluctance to share her personal story with a wide audience, rather than becoming well-known in abolitionist circles like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth.
ebutton11's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced