The use of slavery in Harriet Jacobs really highlights how monstrous and oppressive slavery is. Families are torn apart, lives are ruined, and slaves are tortured physically and mentally. White slave owners in the South manipulate and take advantage of their slaves at every possible opportunity. Nothing escapes the gnarled clutches of slavery: even God and religion are tainted. As Jacobs's account reveals, whites controlled the South's religious institutions and, in doing so, constructed religion as a tool used to perpetuate slavery, the very system it should condemn. The irony exhibited in Jacobs' writings serves to show that they are fully aware that having the word of God on their side gives them even more power over their slaves, and they use this knowledge as a channel through which behavior slaves can be controlled. "After the anxiety caused by Nat Turner's insurrection had subsided, slave owners came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to give slaves enough religious instruction to prevent them from murdering their masters. » (Jacobs 57). This passage is the first to demonstrate that white people use religion itself as an oppressive force. Plans are revealed to “hold a separate service on Sunday for the benefit [of the slaves],” during which pointed sermons were to be delivered to the slaves (Jacobs 57-58). One such sermon is accusatory in nature and intended to instill fear in its enslaved audience. Statements such as “God is angry with you”, “You are lying. God hears you” and “God sees you and will punish you” serve to foster a sense of guilt and fear among slaves, making disobedience in any form an affront to God, who deserves divine punishment (Jacobs 58 ). The sermon creates an emotional connection to profitable slave behavior—obedience born of fear—which it continues to impose as God's will: "If you disobey your earthly Master," the preacher asserts, "you offend your heavenly Master” (Jacobs 58). What is presented to slaves as a religious principle is simply a religious principle. The irony lies in the intentions of the slave owners: they themselves are motivated by fear. They fear a society in which they no longer serve to benefit from slave labor, and so they fear rebellion, they fear objection, they fear events like Nat Turner's insurrection. The system that slave owners worked so hard to protect begins to negatively affect even them, those in power. They begin to face their fear in the only way they know how, by projecting it onto the slaves. When slave owners transfer this fear by corrupting something they themselves revere, religion, the evil power of slavery manifests itself with horrible clarity. Slave owners will stop at nothing, they will leave nothing untouched or soiled if it means the preservation of slavery. Slavery is not only a physical and mental burden on the slaves it imprisons; it is a moral burden for the entire society in which it

Essay / The use of slavery in Harriet Jacobs really highlights how monstrous and oppressive slavery is. Families are torn apart, lives are ruined, and slaves are tortured physically and mentally. White slave owners in the South manipulate and take advantage of their slaves at every possible opportunity. Nothing escapes the gnarled clutches of slavery: even God and religion are tainted. As Jacobs's account reveals, whites controlled the South's religious institutions and, in doing so, constructed religion as a tool used to perpetuate slavery, the very system it should condemn. The irony exhibited in Jacobs' writings serves to show that they are fully aware that having the word of God on their side gives them even more power over their slaves, and they use this knowledge as a channel through which behavior slaves can be controlled. "After the anxiety caused by Nat Turner's insurrection had subsided, slave owners came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to give slaves enough religious instruction to prevent them from murdering their masters. » (Jacobs 57). This passage is the first to demonstrate that white people use religion itself as an oppressive force. Plans are revealed to “hold a separate service on Sunday for the benefit [of the slaves],” during which pointed sermons were to be delivered to the slaves (Jacobs 57-58). One such sermon is accusatory in nature and intended to instill fear in its enslaved audience. Statements such as “God is angry with you”, “You are lying. God hears you” and “God sees you and will punish you” serve to foster a sense of guilt and fear among slaves, making disobedience in any form an affront to God, who deserves divine punishment (Jacobs 58 ). The sermon creates an emotional connection to profitable slave behavior—obedience born of fear—which it continues to impose as God's will: "If you disobey your earthly Master," the preacher asserts, "you offend your heavenly Master” (Jacobs 58). What is presented to slaves as a religious principle is simply a religious principle. The irony lies in the intentions of the slave owners: they themselves are motivated by fear. They fear a society in which they no longer serve to benefit from slave labor, and so they fear rebellion, they fear objection, they fear events like Nat Turner's insurrection. The system that slave owners worked so hard to protect begins to negatively affect even them, those in power. They begin to face their fear in the only way they know how, by projecting it onto the slaves. When slave owners transfer this fear by corrupting something they themselves revere, religion, the evil power of slavery manifests itself with horrible clarity. Slave owners will stop at nothing, they will leave nothing untouched or soiled if it means the preservation of slavery. Slavery is not only a physical and mental burden on the slaves it imprisons; it is a moral burden for the entire society in which it

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