Essay Question on Harriet Jacob, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Linda Brent wrote, ‘Slavery is terrible for men, but it is far more terrible for women

 Essay Question on Harriet Jacob, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Linda Brent wrote, "Slavery is terrible for men, but it is far more terrible for women." Drawing from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and the text and primary documents in the DuBois textbook, please write a four-page essay (1200-1400 word) whereby you engage the ways in which gender and womanhood informed the lives of women enslaved in the system of chattel slavery. In other words: women enslaved had some different experiences and challenges than did enslaved men. What were some of these and explore their significance.

Questions to consider: How did women experience slavery differently from men? How did slavery affect family relations? What role did sexual vulnerability play in the experiences of slave women? How was labor divided according to gender? How did women resist their exploitation? These are just some of the many questions you can consider, so please do not limit your approach to your essay based on these questions.

These are here just to get you thinking.

Of course, I would like you to have a central thesis guiding your essay. The substance of the essay should draw upon examples and evidence from the text to support your thesis.

I should also add that one thing is see absent in many of my students' papers are strong, specific, organizing topic sentences. Topic sentences are crucial to substantiating and furthering your thesis; they also guide the reader to the main point a paragraph will argue—so please pay close attention to them. After a good thesis, good topics sentences are the driving force of a well-crafted essay.

As a reminder, please focus your attention on organization—please consult my "writing tips" handout that details suggestions about how to organize and advance your argument. My "writing tips" have other important suggestions, for example, it is important for you to use quotations succinctly. You should draw on specific details and quotations in the readings to establish your points and elaborate your argument. BUT these quotations should be pithy, brief, and to the point. NO BLOCK QUOTATIONS. Additionally, give a title to your paper and type the assignment using a twelve pitch font. Better yet, if you are in need of help on this assignment, please do not hesitate to schedule an appointment or e-mail me a sample paragraph for me to comment on. I also encourage you to make an appointment with the PSU Writing Center.