Slavery

Slavery Faiths Role in Slavery “Ole Satan’s Church is here below; Up to God’s free church I hope to go.” Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the life of a slave girl. (205) These lines are taken from a song slaves used to sing. So powerful are these lines, yet simple. As you read Harriet Jacobs narrative, the subject of religion has a very broad underlying. The images she conveys are one of a sacrilegious nature in comparison to the white southerners, as opposed to reli- gious in respect to the slaves. Which is ironic, when supposedly the slaves are the heathen. Examples are given throughout the book as evidence of this strong view held by Harriet Jacobs. You have to look no further than the characters of Dr. and Mrs. Flint and Rev. Mr. Pike and their hypocritical behavior. There comes a point in the book when Dr. Flint joins the Episcopal church. One would assume this would have a beneficial affect on his character, but this made him more harsh. Harriet Jacobs describes that she endured the most persecutions after his communion. It seems the doctors main rea- sons for joining the church were because of his slaves, church, harriet, flint, jacobs, one, mrs, dr, south, slavery, very, rev, religion, pike, mr, masters, master, lines, god, town, time, take, southern, song, slaveholders, religious, point, instructions, ing, ideology, hope, great, good, god’s, go