Women but not sisters: Harriet A. Jacobs’s angered literary reply to Harriet B. Stowe

Rel'ista de Eswdíos Nortea111erica110 .,, n." 61 /9 9R). pp . 35 - 50 WOMEN BUT NOT SISTERS: HARRIET A. JACOBS'S ANGERED LITERARY REPLY TO HARRIET B. STOWE CARME MANUEL Univcrsitat de Valencia Aftcr thc publication of Une/e 1rm1 's Cabin. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that the novel «encircled the globe, and was the only book th at found readers in the parlo r. thc nurscry, and the kitchcn in cvery household» (Gossett 165 ). T hc reaction of its readers was extraordinarily controverted. Whilc some cr ied their cyes out and wrote enthusiastic lcttcrs to the book publishers, others waved the war hatchet against Stowc's antislavcry wo rk. Among other things. Uncle Tom · . ~ Cahin hel ped to build nationally and internationally an image of slavcry and Afro-American id en ti ty within the pec uli ar institution. In fact. in h er rcview on Dr ed-Stowe's second antislavcry novel- , Gcor gc Eli ot dcclarcd that with both works «Mrs. Stowe has invented the black novel.»1 Wi ll iam Stanley Braithwaitc thought likewise in 19 25. For this cr itic, Uncle Tom 's Cabin was «thc first co n sp icuous cxamp le of the Negro as a subjcct for litcrary trcatment.» (30) Literary replics by Afro-American writers did not take l ong to appear. According to Bernard W. Bell, thc nineteenth-century black auth ors who responded to the images of blacks created by white literature were mainly influcnced by the Bible, popular fiction. and especially abo li tioni st rhetoric, which became «by far the most useful tradition for th c didactic pu rposcs of bl ac k novelists.» The clcments ingrained in works s uc h as U11cle Tom 's Cabin -«t he formal diction, rhy th mic cadenccs. balanced syntax, stark mctapho rs , and clcvated tone . .. -providcd th e sty li st ic blcnd of matter-of-factness and sentim enta li ty necessary for th eir initial moral and political appeals primar il y to white readers.» (27-28) Ri chard Yarborough also analyses the impact of Une/e Tom 's Cahin 1. The Westmi11srer Review. October 1856 . Quoted in Ammnns. Critica/ 43 -44. 36 Carme Manu el on Afro-American ninetecnth-cc nt ury fiction since, whatcver attitude these writers felt towards Stowc or towards her no ve l, they «inevitably wrote in her wake.» This <loe s not mean that they co nsciously cr ea ted their works following thi s b es t-seller, but that thc no ve l «cmbodi ed a whole co n st e ll ation of preexisting, of ten conflicting ideas regarding racc, powcrfu ll y dramatized them in a sentimental fashion, p res ented them with an unabashedly didactic reformist message, and, linally proceeded to se ll likc the dickens.» Al the same time, in providing a l it crary form and a whitc aud i encc rcady to assimilate antislavcry protest, Stowc «also hclpcd to establish a range of character types that scrved to bind and restrict black authors for decades.» (72)~ Among t he Afro -American works that directly responded to Stowe, it is importan! to mention Solomon Northup's Twelve Year s a SI are ( 1853 ), Frederick Douglass 's « The Heroic Slave» ( 185 3) :md his re vi se d autobiography. My Bv11dage ami My Freedom ( 1855), as we ll as Martin Delany's Blak e; 01 ; the Huts of Am erica (1859), a novel which ex plicitly ca lls for a black revolutionary power.' Nineteenth-century Afr o-Ame rican women writers also r espo nded to Stowe. Elizabeth Ammons studies th is influence in the work of Har ri et E. Wilson, Sarah L ee Brown Fleming, Frances E ll en Watkins Hm·pcr and Angelina W. Grimké.4 Th is is just a sa mplc of Afro-American works writlen in the light of Stowe's novel, as thc list continued well into th e twentieth-century.5 Th ey come to demonstratc what Shelley. F. Fishkin calls «the interplay between Afro-American and white cultu re in th e Un ited Stat es» and Wcrncr Sollors labels as «the pcrvasiveness of cult ural syncretism in America.» ( 135, 141) Fo ll owing their pa thbreaking studies and retaking 2. Ri chard Yarborough states that « bla ck writers could not h el p hut be co nvin ced that if enough oft he right ingr ediems were com b ine d in thc ri gh t proportions under the right con dition s. thcy too c ould c on coc t dee ply political nove ls that rnight tap the same rn ass audi enc e that Stowe did and thereby sh ape the altitudes of whites toward the bla ck minority in the United States» (72) . Th is cr itic stud ies this intlue ncc in sorne Afro-American authors: J. W. Howard"s Bond and Fr ee: A True Tale ofS /m•e Times ( 1886). Fran ces Ellcn Watkins Ha rper 's /ola Lemy . or Shaduws Up líft ed ( 1892). Vict or ia Ear le's IMatthews] A11111 Lind_\ ~ A Story Fo wul ed 011 Real Lif e ( 1892), Wa lt cr H. Stowers and William H. Ander son ·s Appoí 11t ed ( 1894). and Charles W. Che sn utt' s The Marrow of Tradilíon ( 1901 ). For Willi am L. Andrews. Harriet B ee chcr Stowe « provid ed a powerful impetus to the revolution of literary pr iorities that would i mp el bla ck autobiographers furth er and furth er away from white precedents» ( 179). 3. About the ways Douglass revises Stowe in My Bonda ¡¡e mzd Mv Fr eedom, s ee Su ndquist, New Essays 17-18. and al so the chapter « Signs of Power: Na t Tumer ami Frcderick Dou glass » in his To Wake the Nations (27-134). Lik cw i se Robert B. Stcpm's «Sh aring thc Th und en> makes a com pa ri so n betwe en Une/e Tom" s Cab i11 and Dou gl ass's « The Heroic Slave», asa n examp le of textual c onver sation on antislavery rh et or ic. On t he other hand. Sundquist c onside rs Blake as a literary reply to St owc , D oug lass, ami M elv ille ( «Conspira cy» 54). See al so the seco nd chaptcr of 7ii Wake the N lllio11 s. «Mclville, Delan y, and New World Slavery» ( 1 35 -224 ). 4. Anun ons analys es the work of th ese writers as a rcflection a nd reco nstruction of t he maternal them e in Unde Tom"s Cabi11. Scc « Stowc' s Dream». 5. Anmng the hest know n are, for cxamp le. Richard Wright"s U11cle Trmr 's Children ( 1938). lshmael Reed 's A Flight 10 Canada ( 1 976) and Toni Morrison ·s Beloved ( 19 87). Women Rut No! Sisters: Harriet A. Jacohs's A11xer ed Literary Rep/ y to Harriet 8. Stoll'e 37 Toni Morrison 's ca ll to literary researchers «to acknowledge the very mixcd Ji terary bloodlines on both sides ». I will discuss that Harrict A. J acobs 's bz cidents in the Lije of a Slave Girl: Writte11 by Herselfwas also wrilten in thc wakc of Stowc's extraordinarily popular best-scller. Thc aim of this essay is to analysc how Jacobs manages to fashion a rnultip le representation in her text that is directly re lated to the literary modes employed by Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom 's Cabi11. and t hat they shape not only th e presentation of her experience but. also and mo st importantl y, the ways in which she cxpects to impact readers. In 1861 Harrict A. Jacobs, after endless cfforts to find a publishcr, brought out /ncidems in the Lije v.f a SI ave Girl: Written hy Herseif on her own, hut soon after, thc book and its author fell into oblivion. The fcw critics who knew aboul it thought it a dictated narrative by a fugitive slavc; others bclicved il to be a fi ctional account written in thc form of a slave narrative by a white abo lition i st.~ In both cases it was dismissed altogether as a poorly writtcn wo rk marred by it s se ntiment ality and moralizing. Not until Jean Fagan Yell in 's research authenticated Jacobs's authorship did the hook start to receive its due scholarly attention. Jean F. Yellin exp lains that «it is no accident that man y critics mistook Jacobs 's narrativc for fiction.» ( « Introdu ction» xxix) Linda Brcnt, Jacobs's alter-ego and her book's heroine and narrator, tells an ambiguous story of triumph. Her confessional account of her fall and guilt is pres e nt e cl to thc rcader to be ju d ge d in thc same way as thc helple ss virtuous Richardsonian or Rowsonian heroine. But this is only apparently becausc, even if it is undoubtedly true thal the strategies Jacobs uti lizes in h er narrative clraw inspirntion from well-known popular fiction devices, Une/e Tom '. ~ Cabin is the b oo k she responds to and, in her attcmpt to gi ve a true and jus l account of the evils of slavery for women. shc suhverts Harrict Bcech er Stowe's tcxt and gives form lo her black voice. The relationship betwcen Jacobs and Stowc can be considered from a twofold pcrspectivc: from a pcrsonal-professional point of view and from a Iitcrary stance. Jacobs was fully awarc of the importance of Stowe and of th e l cgi timizing powcr that h er voice could con fer to h er own story if the whitc w ri tcr accepted to actas a mediator in producing a dictatcd narrativc. Bul she did not co me up to Jacob s's cxpect at ions. According to Joa n D. H ed rick, «pub li cly succcssful, Sto we was not as skillful and scnsitive in a private antislavery rnattcr.» (248) First. Stowe dcclined Jacobs's proposal of her daughters' accornpanying her to England. Moreover, she did not believe Jacobs 's 6. John Blassingame is regard cd to he onc of t he most importalll male sc holars who eslablished this train of thought in his Tf1e Slnn! Comm1111ity: P/amatio11 Lij e i11 the A11tebel/11111 Sowh ( 1979). For 131a ssingam e. «thc story is t oo me lodramati c: misccgcnation and cruelty, outragcd vi1iue, unrequited love. and pl anter licentiousness appear on practically every page» (373). Carby r cp lies to his opinion in 45-6. Yellin prescnts a summary of the different positions defended by schnlars in «Tcxts and Con texts». Fo r a discussion of the factors influencing thc acceptan ce of a slave narrator's voicc as authentic, secAndrcws 1-7. 22- :l l. 97-105. 38 Carme Ma11uel auto biog rap hi cal narrativc at her first reading and se nt it to Mrs. Willis, Jacobs·s wh ite no rt hern emp loyc r, for ve rifi ca ti on . If it turncd out to be true, then she would use it as material for her Key to Uncle Tom 's Cabin. Ja co bs's strategy of hidi ng in the attic was strikingly similar to thc tri ck Cassy devised to chca t Legree, a nd St owe hoped to use it to co rroborate her fiction. Both Jacobs and Mrs. Wi ll is wcre shoc ked by the way the fam ous wr i t er had acted. Moreover, shc nevcr answc red Ja cobs' s four succeeding let ters. As a conscqucnce, she «felt Sto we ha d betrayed her as a wo rn an, dcn igrated her as a mother, and threat enc d her as a writer.» (Ycllin, «lntroducti on» xix)7 Fu r Hedrick, «Stowe·s behaviour - an extr eme exa mple of inse nsitivity br ed by class and sk in pr ivil egcwas probably exa rcerbated by h er sensc of literary ·o wn ership' of the t ale of thc fugitive sla ve .» (249)x There exists anoth er examplc of Sto we 's co ntradictory behavi our towards anoth er black woman who challengcd thc syst em with a voice of h er own and from the written word. Among t he articlcs she publ is hed during thc war year s, there is one wh ic h actua ll y ill um inates how una bl e she was to «pcnctrate the contradictions of womanhuod instead of mcrely manip ul ating th em.» (Hc dr ick 249) In April 1 863 « Sojo urner Truth. the Li byan Sibyl» appeared in Atlantic Molllhly. Sojourncr Truth (c. 1797 -1 883) was one of the most o ut standing black abolitionists oft hc pe ri od. Her speech at the 18 51 Akron W ome n 's Rights Co n ve ntion exposed h er awareness of the pow er of h er voice. with the ques ti on, «A'n ·t I a wo man?». and she defined herself as a creature of God and suffering Chris ti an a nd revealed the racism which reigncd in the Am er ican reform moveme nt s. Stowe's article b cca me the most influential co ntemporary essay on Truth 's life but, as Yellin exp lains, St owe «Creatcd a creature t ha t is passive, mysterious. and inhuman ¡ . .. ] notan enchained quccn. but a mutilate [ ... ] a pcrverse characte ri zat ion.» (Women & Sisters 82)'1 Both cases show that «when Stowe's role was clea rl y that of patroness of the arts and of 't he race', Stowe functioned cornfortabl y» (Hedri ck 249), but wh en co nfront ed by black wo m en with an assertive voi ce, h er atti tude was quite different. The involvement of Jacobs with Stowe from a li terary point of view is much 7. Golds by sum mar izes the risks writing entailcd for Jacobs. Firstl y, it would launch her into a public forum and she was well aware oft he critica! rcaction against Une/e Tom's Cabin. and that had bccn cnough to set any an ti slavcry writer o ff the dcnunciation tracks. A nd secondl y. it would se t her in com petition with o ther antisl avc ry authurs, most nota bly Stowc. Bu t, in spite uf thcse problems ... the prospect of being a published aut hor seemed to int rigue and excite Jacobs ... as she sh ows in her letters to Amy Post. collected in thc edition ofYellin. See Goldsby 37. 8. Gar fi eld summarizes thc fecling of Jm: obs abo ut the a tt emp t of Stowe·s appropiation of her narra ti ve in 283-285. 9. During h er second trip tu Europe in 1857. Stowe tuld scul ptur William Wetmore Story ab out Truth in Rom e. H er acco unt inspired his «The Libyan Sibyl» (1 86 1), a sculpture that ce l cbrates the black abolitionist. For an a nl ysis of the iconography he di sp lays in this work. see Ye lli n, Wo111e11 & Sisters 82-87. Wo111e11 Bu1 Nol Sisters: H arrie1 A. Jarnbs 's Angered Literan· Rep/y Jo Harriet /J . Stmve 39 mo re complcx and amb igu ous . only once in l11 cide 11 ts is Une/e 7im1 's Cah in referred to cxplicitly. In chaptcr XL. Linda Brent te ll s how Mrs. Bruce violates ope nl y the laws of thc United States and hclps her hide in Ncw England wherc s he is she lt crcd by the wife of a senator. « This honorable gentleman», writ es Jacobs, « would not have voted for the Fugitive Slave Law. as did the scnator in ·Uncle Tom 's Cabin'; on the contrary. he was strongly op posed to it: but he was enough undcr it s in tlucnc e to be afraid of having me r cm a in in his h ouse many hours. So 1 was sent into the co un try.»"' But !11ci de11ts distills Stowe's intlucn ce in more than just this directly cited occasion as it is thc main text against which Jacobs is rewriting. 11 Frances Sm ith Fostcr rightly asserts that H arr iet Jacobs «used her own cx periences to create a book that would correct and enlist support against prevailing social myths and politi ca l ideologies.» (62) But 1 do not agree whcn she says that whcn ~ h e decidcd to te ll her story «there was no liter ar y modcl to fit her task ami tcm perame nt [ ... [ Shc cr ca ted a new lit erary form. one that challenged her audicnce~ · socia l and acsthctic a ss umptions even as it dclighted and reaflirmed them.» (62-63) In fact. part of her outright demand to readcrs th at they not only acknowled ge her story of exp loitati on but act upon it. is based on their familiarity with Stowe ·s thcmc of black womc n 's victimizati on under t he peculiar institution. According to Andrews. Jacob s's text togcther with Frcdcrick Douglass 's M.v Bondage all(/ My Fn:edom (! 855) are exa mplcs of the dialogization that the predominat ely mo nol og ic vo ice of black autobiogrnphy un derwent in thc black lit cra ry rena i ssa nce of the l 850s." Hcn ce J co ns id cr that Une/e Tom 's Cabin was facobs's prime inspiration in this process of dialogization and that this is t he reason why readers ha vc r ead her autobi og raphical narrative as a no vel. In lncidents Jacob s revises two of the main strategics uscd hy Stowe in her tcxt: t he Gothic motif and the remodclli ng of her engaging narrator. Whcn Stowc decided to compose a story that wou ld describe thc horrors of slavery in the most graphic and telling manner. she chosc a haunted hou se surround cd by swamps in the midst of a derelict cotton plantation. The ga rrct of the ruined old mansion that Simon Legrce occu pi es is a ghos tl y place where years b efo rc a negro woman who had incurr ed his displeasurc ha d bcen confined and tor turcd to death. u Cassy. Legree 's quadroon mistress. will «make use of [hisl superstitious exc it abi li ty [ ... ¡ for the purpose 1 O. Har ri et A. Jacobs. l11 ciden1s in the Lije of a S/ave Girl: Wrillen by Herse(f Et!. an<l intrud. Jean Fagan Ycllin (Cam bridge. Massacht1scttes and London: Harvard U P. 1987. Reprinted 1861 ed. ). 194. Ali furth er quotations from this text will rcf cr to this e <lition an<l will be cited herc parenthetically by page nt1mb er. Jacobs r cfcrs to Chaptcr IX of Une/e Tom 's Cnbín. «In Which lt Appcars That a Senntor is Bu t a Man». 11. Zafar stat cs that thc book d id not havc the impact of Dougl ass's first aLJtobiography ( 1845 ). nor "ª goo dsize<l fraction of t ha t of Harriet Bee ch er Stowe 's Uncle Tom's Ca bin ( 1852). a novel aga inst which Jaco bs implici tl y framed h er story» (4). 12. See An<lrews 265-292. 13. Ch apt er XXX IX «T he Stratagem» of U1Zcle Tom 's Cabin. The themc oft hc cruel master i mp risoning slavcs in n ga rrct was pn pular and use <l by antcbcllum antisl avery writers and 40 Carme Manuel of her liberation. and that of fellow-suffcrer [Emmeline]» 1 ~. and dig up the ghost of this dead woman to put an cnd to their own bondage. Elizabeth Fox -Ge novese draws attcntion to the fact that more often than not «the autobiographies of Afro-American womc n ha ve bcen written from within the cage.» ( l 77) But if in ma ny cases this can be understood as a metaphor of the plight of the black woman writcr. in the case of Harriet A. Jacobs this has to be undcrstood literall y. For her. the dark night of thc sou l that slavery represents has no mystical bearing on her sp irit but it is a tangible torrnenting experience on her flesh. Hencc. she transforms hcrself into a litcrary subject by bccoming precisely that negro woman contincd in the Gothic garrct who diffcrently from Stowe's passi ve victim, but similarly to Poe's Lady Madeleinc and Ligeia. is buricd a li ve to come back after a time to vindicate her powcr ami assert her womanhood. Jacobs uses the Gothic imagc not only as embodiment of thc ev il s of slavery, but ultimately to put thc standard notions ofwh ite fcmalc morality and sexuality upside down andjustify that they have no bearing in judging A frican American slavc women 's experience. The madwoman's attic is transformed by Jacobs into the bondwoman's milit ary opcrational centre from which she wagcs psychological war on her enemy and from which she devises her tactics to counteract the «pciting storms of a slave-mother's life.» (146) Contrary to Stowc's black wo man co n fi ned by force in the garret of a w hi te owner's mansion, Linda Brent imprisons herself in her nwn grandmothcr's hnuse. She thus becomes the owner of her life and deeds who, far from becoming a victimized voyeur ofher own destruction, rises to the leve! of pu ppcteer co ntrolling her automatons. The slave becomcs master and the master s la ves of her well orchestrated plans. That Jacohs is dccply aware of the subversive implications of her stratcgy is madc cl ear in different ways. Firstly, she responds to Miss Fanny's p la intive rcaction to the s!aves' situation. Miss Fanny, a white lady fond ofhcr grandmolher, confesses that she «wishcd that J and ali my grandmnther's family were at re st in our graves, for not until then should she l ee! any peacc about us.» (89) Not o nl y does Jacobs firmly reject the fate of the tragic mulatlo Cassy and the co nfined negro woman. hut chooses burial ali ve as the only way to sccure h er freedom. In fact, even Lcslie Fi ed l er is alcr t to the dangcro us pote ntial i mbedded in the sc mo til\ and later ignored by rcaders and crit i ca ! interpretations. He recognises that Legrec's passionate relationship with Cassy and his frustratcd attempt to rape Emmcline reach such a dcgree of complexity that they do not «s ti ck in the collec ti ve memory of Ameriea.» (2 64) Furthermore, the story of the decline of Cassy and her degradation to thc Jevcl of becoming Le grce's unwilling mistrcss has comp lctcly «faded from the mind after we have read Uncle Tom.» (265) Thus what posthellum writcrs <liscussing racial injustice. See. ror cxample, Ge org e Washington Cable "s «The H aun t e<l H ousc in Ro yal Strcet» in Strunge Tru e St or ies of louisiww ( 1889). 14. Harrict B. St owe. Une/e 7i1111·s Cabi11 (Ncw York: Pen guin Books. 1 981). 565. A l! furthcr quotations fro m this tcxt will re fer to this edition and will he cited h en : parcnthetically by page numh er. Women 8111 Not Sisters: Harriet A. Jacobs's A11gered Literary Reply to Harri et B. Stmi-e 41 Stowc ju st sketches in her book is magnified by Jacobs into the central idea around which her texl revolves, which is, according to Carby, « lhe most sophisticated, sustained narrative dissection of the conventions of true woman hood by a black author before emanc ipation.» (47) Secondly, evcn the title of this ch aptcr , «L oopholes of Rctreat», a reference to William Cowper 's «T he Task» is ironical, especially if we reca ll thc genesis of this work. Lady Austen playfully suggested that the Eng li sh poet write about a sofa. an idea that grew into the long discursive poem, « The Task», conceived to recommend rural case and leisure, and which was an immediatc success on its publication in 1 785. 1 ~ Through Cowper 's «loopholes of rctreat», the observcr can p eep at the wor ld, sce the stir of the great Babel, and, fortunately, not feel the crowd. The reversa] of the function of the hiding place for Jacobs is evident. Moreover, Jacobs uses the image of her imprisonmcnt on two l eve ls. On the one hand. it is thc literal physical co nfinement in t he dungeon of the inquisitorial castle of slavery. Linda Brent's plight in revealing thc truth is that she is awarc of her privilcged situation. « The wild beast of Sl ave ry» (35), «thc demon Slavery» (83) is pernicious enou gh in thc urban world but in the plantations isolated in thc remole rural world is where it achicves its most brutal proportions and where outrages against the humanity of slaves are perpetrated with utrnost impuníty. Thc isolated house is an analogical representation of thc Gothic horror embodied in the mansion of slavcry. «How often did I rejoice that l livcd in a town where all thc inhabitants knew each other 1 lf I had been on a remote plantation, or lost among the multitude of a crowded cit y. I should not be a living wo man at this day» (35), she declares. Rohert D. Hume explains that the Gothic is defincd not hy its stock dcvicc s, but. mo st importan tl y, by its use of a par ticular atmos p hcre of cvil and hrooding te rror , for essentially psychologícal reasons, wh osc purpose is to immerse the reader in an extraordinary wor ld in which ordinary standards and moral judgmcnts bccome mcaninglcss and good and evil ar e seen as incxtricahly íntcrtwincd (282-90). This is exactly what she achieves by h er constant referenccs to and comparisons bctwecn what she is actually suffering and what othe r si aves might be go ing through in oth er latitudes. «Thc secrets of slavery are co nccal ed li ke thosc ofthe Inquisition» (35), she boldly as se rts. Thus she pl ays with the anguish of her known r ca lity and t he evc n more perverse certainty of the unknown. On the oth er hand, Linda Brent 's en t ombment works as rcdemption for her sins. Thc text is pervaded with the tension of adhering to the nineteenth-century middlcclass white fcmale standards of sexual morality and the ur ge n cy of trans ce nding them. Consequently, even if Jacobs tries to toe the fine of dom es tic fiction. s he is far from lirniting hcr sclf to impcrsonating the figure of the virtuous woman of that samc sentimental liction. or the type of hernie mother Eliza Harris symbolizes in Uncle Tom 's 15. Olney lists «a poet ic epigraph. by prdc rence from William Cowpcr» as nnc of thc conventions for slavc narratives that cstablish a sort of master outlinc ( 152). .u Carme Manuel Cabin ( 15). Shc is the maidcn in flight of the Gothic novel and Dr. Flint is Simon Lcgree's co unterpart in this narrative. Flint is transformed i nto a dev il , who enjoys power more than moncy (80), an «epicure» ( 12 ). a «WO lf» (59) with a «rcstless. craving, vicious naturc [ ... ] seeking whom to dcvour» (18): a «V ilc monster» spor ting «t errific ways» trying «his utmost to corrupt the pure principies» instilled in a gir l, a violator of «the most sacred cornmandmcnts of nature» (27); an animal of prcy ( 40) , a «persecutor» (35). a «jealous lovcr.» (81) But even if Jacobs describ es Linda Br c nt asan intimidatcd corncred dcfenceless animal reacting to a de spera tely th rea tenin g situation, shc sti ll fecls that her departure from the sexual moral rules reigning in society needs a corree ti ve and this is where her confinement is tinged with the airs of self-inflicted punishm en t. And here there is still another link with Uncle Tom 's Cabin th at clarifies Jacobs' inner struggle. Kar en Ha lttuncn , ta king into account G. R. Thompson 's opinion on Romanticism and thc Goth ic tradition, be li eves that Stowc was « strong ly dr awn to Gothic fiction 's sy mp at he ti c representation of the « ·1ormented cond ition · of a creature», which is «revealed in her lifclong fascination with Byron». a soul driven into war with itself by its Calvinist upbringing (129). Jacobs al so recalls Byron and cites from T/1e La111e111 of"fosso. a dramatic soliloquy, exprcssing the poct's passionate )ov e and regrct, while he is in prison. for Lconora D'Este. By quo tí ng lines 7 to JO (stanza iv), she draws attention to the fact that hers is also a sem i driven into wa r with itsclf , «tortured in la] separate hell.» Thus her seven-year imprisonm ent comes to symbolize Linda Brent 's expiation for her own «lonnentcd condition .» Moreover. it reac hes thc stage of a mystical purge for her moral deviation with h er Ioss of the power of speech . h er ncar death and r es urrec ti on (122). Consequentl y, Jacobs wi ll fashion it - con lrary to the torturing end as Sto we does -as an expiatory sta tion not only on h er j ourney to spirilual cleansing but. most importan!, to physical freedom. She claims: «l tried to be thankful for my little cell, dismal as it was. and evento love it, as pan of the price I had paid for the redcmption of my children.» (123) Yet. in her ce ll shc is active, never pa ssive. that is to sa y, «passive aggression is suhstituted for violent con frontalion.» (Tate 105) And she does this neither by using «l <> her advantage ali the power of the voyeur», as Valerie Smith sta t es (215), nor by utilizing h er sexual potential as Cassy do es, but by weaving an elaborate spider\ web around her master by writing, thus linking her quest to one of thc most impo11ant mo ti fs in black literature. Her empowennent as a victimizer is made dependent on her literacy. She then legi tima zes her own position as a writer of exp losive missives. Writ ing plays the role of an electrifying umbilical co rd betwcen her ap parently dead state and her living plight, and she becomes, not the inert victim who sees while remaining unseen. but an uhiquitous plottcr, spying on her enemies and emb roiling thern in her schemes. Furthermorc, her condition of fallen woman, her fall into sin, turns out to be a parody of Dr. Flint's foil i nt o de sp on deney. Linda Brent's arr ival in the North and her subsequcnt rise in lif e is reminis cent of the return of Lady Madeleine and the dead black woman 's ghost in Legree's mansion. The fall of the house of Flint is blatantly clear when his Wo111e11 But Not Si. \lc>rs: Harriet A. Jaco/Js's A11geretl Lilerary Repl y to Harriet B. Stmve -D daughter bogged down in cconomic trouble goes to look for her. Thc Got hi c rnotif of torture and death of the black femalc is rcversed and made into a white nightmare. The sccond clement that lncid ents rcmodels from Un ele Tom 's Cahin is Stowc 's interventions in the tcxt to cngage reader s. As Robyn R. Warhol cxplains, Stowe -like othcr women novelists in mid-ninetcenth century England, wr it ing to inspire belief in the situations th cir novels describe-experimented with what s he calls «u n engaging narrator». that is to say, a narrator who «S trivcs to close the gaps between the nmTat cc, thc addressee. and the receiver.» Th ese namlli vc intcrventions are addressed to a «you» that is intcnded «to evoke recognition an<l identificati on in the pcrson who holds the book and reads. evcn if th e 'you' in the text resembles that pcrson only slightly or not at ali.» (8 11 ) But Jacobs departs from quite a different point. Rob ert Stepto has explained of Afro-American narratives that «it is the readcr -not the author or text and cer tainly not the storyteller in th e text -who is unre li able.» ( «Distrust of thc Rcader» 309) When Jacobs opens h er prefacc with the words «Reader, be ass ured this narrative is no fi ction» ( 1 ). she is tracing a gesture that gocs beyond a m ere rhctoric purpo se of awakening the reader's sympathy for what follows. Shc is acutely aware that her words will come up against the prcjudice. disbelief. and even hostility of the white audience. Stowe relies on an cngaging narrator to overcome prejudice. but J acobs 's strategy dodges identification and underscores distancc, challenge and even rebuff. Her appeals to the reader occur in fivc forms. Firstly, the narrator states thc truth of the facts shc narrates since her account derives from her living experiences. Besidcs the first words of the preface. oth er examples appear in chapter VI. «Reader. I draw no imaginary pictures of southern homes, I am telling you th e plain truth» (35). ami chapter IX.« You may believe what I say; for 1 write that whereof I know l ... j 1 can testify from my own experi encc and observation.» (52) Whereas Stowe 's engaging narrator intrudes to remind that her fiction is nourished on sources that reflect real-world co nditions. Jacobs's explicit attitude toward the act of narration gocs beyond fictionality, since she legitimizes h er text with her own voice and without trusting the extradiegetic situation it describes. Secondl y, Jacobs addresses free white women to challen ge them to draw a comparison between th e standards of morality th at rule their lives and tho se governing the slave woman. Examp les of this form can be seen in chapter III. «Ü, you happy free women. contrast your New Year's <l ay with that of the poor bond-womanl» (16); and chapter X. «Ü , ye happy women, whose purity has been sheltered from childhood, who have becn free to choose the objects of your affection, whose homes are pro t ec ted by law. do notjudg e the poo r desola te slave girl too severelyl» (54) Stowe limits the circle of her readers addressing herself to «rnothers» or to the maternal se nsibility buried in male readers in an attempt to engage th eir sympathy a nd strengthen their values as shapcrs of middle-class identity and champions of the ideo logy of true womanhood. However. Jacobs dire ct ly questions these ideas as racialized concepts which excludc black women and cast th em out into marginality. A third form of appeal tries to justify the tone of the narrative. In chapter V. she 50 Carme Manuel YELUN . JEAN FAGAN. «Texts and Contexts of Harrict Jacobs' ln cide nt s i11 the Lije ofa S/(11'1! Girl: Wrillen hY H enelf » The SI ave 's NarratiPe. Eds. Charles T. Davi s and Henry L. Gates, Jr. New Yo rk: Oxfo rd U P. 1985. 262-278. __ . Women (l/1d Sisters: The A11tislavery Femi11i .1· t. 1· i11 American C11 /rur e. Ncw Hav en and London: Yalc U P. 1989. __ . « Doing It Hcr sc lf: Une/e Tom'.1· Cabin and Wom an' s Rol e in the Slave ry Crisis.» Su ndquist. New Es.1 ·ay.1· 85-105. ZAFAR. RAFIA. «lntroduction. Ovcr -Ex posed. Undcr-Exposcd: Harr i ct Jacobs and lncit!ents ÍI! ch e Life of a Slan ! Girl.» Garlicld and Za far . H ar ri e1 Ja cobs 1-1 0.