Incidents Blog Post 4(pg.107- pg.151)

   Throughout reading Incidents I've noticed how Jacob's constantly relies on her friends to be her eyes, and ears as she is in hiding. Her friends continue to pass along critical messages and information to her while also getting messages to people from her. As Jacob's is hidden in her "den" in her grandmothers house she overhears people talking about how Dr. Flint has sold her children. She is left in anticipation as she describes "I bit my lips until the blood came to keep from crying out. Were my children with their Grandmother, or had the speculator carried them off? The suspense was dreadful. Would Betty never come, and tell me the truth about it?"(Jacobs, 111). After waiting in agony Betty later comes and tells Jacobs her kids had been sold to the father, Mr. Sands and all was fine. At a later part in Incidents Jacobs creates a note to Dr. Flint about how she is in New York. One of Peters friend's agrees to help her get the note to Dr. Flint by taking the Note to New York and mailing it from there  This helps to re-ensure her cover. She shows her gratitude to Peter by saying " God bless and reward you, Peter, for this disinterested kindness."(131).  Without all the help of her friends Jacob's might not have made it through this life-threatening process as far as she has. She would not have been able to pull off such schemes and moved around from hiding-place and hiding place if she had not had the friends that have aloud her to do so. The teamwork of each and every person that has helped Jacob's is truly amazing.

Incidents Blog Post 3(pg.87- pg.107)

    In this section of Incidents Jacob's love for her children really shines through. Jacobs takes the risk of sneaking out at night to vistit her children who are staying with her grandmother. Jacobs describes "I went to look at my children and thank god for their happy sleep. The tears fell as I leaned over them"(Jacobs, 89). Jacob's later takes a much more life-theatening risk by running away. She does this in hopes that Dr. Flint will see her children are useless without her and decide to sell them. Making it possible for the father of the children to buy them. Jacobs runs away to a friends house and is later transfered to stay with a friends mistresses who is very kind hearted and willing to help her out. She is able to recieve small bits of information about the whereabouts of her children and discovers Dr. Flint locked them in jail. Hearing this information the love for her children creates her agonizing pain. Jacobs reveals "When I heard that my little ones were in a loathsome jail, my first impulse was to go to them. I was encountering dangers for the sake of freeing them, and must I be the cause of their death? The thought was agonizing"(103-104). By running away not only is Jacob's in a life threatening situation, but her childern are too. This shows that slaves have no control over their lives. Jacob's is not able to free her children without Dr. Flint selling them first. Her whole plan is based off another persons actions. She can only hope her plan works out in the end.

Incidents Blog Post 2(pg.42- pg.64)

   As I continue reading Incidents, Jacob's describes some of the cruelest slave owners and their punishments. She reveals, "A favorite one was to tie a rope around a mans body, and suspend him from the ground. A fire was kindled over him from which was suspended a piece of fat pork. As this cooked, the scalding drops of fat continually feel on the bare flesh" (Jacobs, 46). I knew that slave owners could be very cruel people, but I never thought their cruelty could become a punishment like this. Jacobs also describes a slave owner who punished one of their slaves for running away, first by lashing him hundreds of times and then by jailing him. Then he placed the slave between the screws of an Cotton Gin for 4 days where all he could do was barely turn on his side. Jacobs describes, "When the press was unscrewed, the dead body was found parially eaten by rats and vermen" (49). This really surprised me. I don't understand how people can just play around with and throw away other people's lives like these slave owners did. The slave owners treated dogs better than they treated their slaves. They learned not to care and believed that slaves were property and not people. Why did so many people get away with this type of tourture during slavery?

Incidents Blog Post 1(pg. 26-pg. 42)

   Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Brent Jacobs, known as Linda Brent undercover is a novel following the reality of the life of a slave, more specifically "Linda Brent" and the many hardships she was put through during her life as a slave in the 1800's. Jacobs talks about her life as a little kid "I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away." (Jacobs, 1). when both her parents were still alive and she was under the care of a very nice Mistress. Her life does a complete 360 when her mistress passes away and she becomes a slave for her mistresses neice, under the master Dr. Flint.
   Being a slave has a giant toll on your emotions. As a slave Jacobs was sexually pressuerd by her Master, Dr. Flint which caused her not only anxiety but aslo fear for her physical safety. Dr. Flint would constantly ask for private meetings with her and follow her around. She states "I cannot tell how much I suffered in the presence of these wrongs, nor how I am still pained by the retrospect" (27). Dr. Flints wife also added to Jacobs terror and anxiety. Because of the fact that Dr. Flint wanted sexual relations with Jacobs his wife became extermemly jelous and offered to help Jacobs by letting her sleep in the room next to her. During these nights Jacobs would wake up to her Mistress watching her or interrogating her in her sleep. Jacobs describes "I began to fear for my life. It had been often threatened; and you can imagine, better than I can descirbe, what an unpleasent sensation it must produce to wake up in the dead of night and find a jelous woman bending over you" (33). The emotional toll Jacobs went through affected all parts of her life, even while she was sleeping.

Reality vs. Ideal

  When I think of School I think of work, stress, and teachers. School depends too much on your grades rather than building up your abilities in each subject. One of the most common things that comes out of a parent's mouth is "Are you keeping your grades up?" or "Go get good grades!" Kids become overly stressed out by the pressure put on them to do so. This stress can lead to overworking yourself and getting even worse grades as a result. 
  Tests help to contribute to the stress put on kids these days. If you do poorly on one test, that one test could drop your grade significantly. Anxiety is a big part of test taking too. Many people become jittery or nervous before a big test because they are scared they might do poorly on it. The expectation of always getting good grades is just too high these days.
  One more factor that contributes to rising stress levels in kids these days is being socially accepted. Some people will go out of their way to be accepted by others either by changing their personality, style, etc. to the point where they're no longer recognizable, just to fit in with a group. 
  In my ideal school we would have less tests and quizzes. Passing a course would not be determined on one giant test. I would also have less students in each class so the teacher has a easier time making sure each and every student understands the material and is able to give individual attention to a student easier. Class activities would be more group and hands on activity's rather than individual worksheets and note taking all the time.
School is not a perfect place. At. All.