Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” is a call for individuality. According to Emerson, individuality is when an individual takes his or her own thoughts and feelings in to account and does not perform actions based off of what their surroundings think. Emerson notes that society is the blame for the way many people act in certain situations because they tend to forget to trust in their self and their own instincts. Not trusting in your own instinct opens a door for discomfort and unoriginality which in return closes the door for an individual’s voice to be heard.
In my opinion, being self reliant is bringing one’s inner views on what is true and meaningful to them, to the light. While in the process of doing so, they enrich a community through the diversity of their individual actions. Emerson demonstrates individuality through conformity, and the aboriginal self, which modifies the egotism of self reliance. Harriet Jacobs implements Emerson’s thoughts on “Self-Reliance”, conformity, and the aboriginal self by being able to relate through her bravery against all man, not conforming to the world (as she struggled to be herself), and not taking the same route of life as the other slaves.
Harriet Jacobs begins relating to Emerson by her ability to be brave against all man. Being brave is being self reliant. Again, self reliance is when an individual is able to rely on their own thoughts and feelings. They trust in their self and they believe that they can do whatever their heart desires. It takes a strong, hard-working, self-reliant individual to be brave and make decisions off of what they feel is best for them and that is exactly what Harriet Jacob’s did. Harriet was not the average woman.
Her desire to be the odds of the average African American slave made it hard for her to fulfill the freedom she knew she could get. However, she was brave in her quest for real, un-purchased freedom. She yearned more for a freed gifted future, for herself, and other slaves. She was not afraid of dating an older white man; in fact, she found that to be advancement. In her book “From Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, after her mistress, Margaret Horniblow passed, her life took a devastating turn.
Her new mistress’s father subjected her to aggressive and unrelenting sexual harassment and torment. At age sixteen, afraid that he would rape her, she sought a relationship with her white neighbor (“friend”), Samuel Tredwell Sawyer, and with him she bared two children; he was her safe haven. The bravery Jacob’s had in getting in to a relationship with Sawyer only made Norcom furious. He sent her away to a life of laboring and threatened to break in her young children as field hands.
Jacob’s felt that the only way to save her children was to take the risk of running away, freeing herself and her children. She had the strength and resilience that African American women had to develop in order to survive slavery and that was making a way even when there was no way. A major struggle for Jacobs was being able to be herself and not conforming to the world as she fought to be free. During that time, it was hard for African American slave women to not conform to the way the world had made them and that was by not trying to break free from slavery.
Unlike the other slaves, Jacobs found her way through conformity and that was realizing the truth comes from within and lies beyond or transcends the knowledge we obtain from our intuition. She accepted her place in the world and found a way to make a better place for herself. Jacobs learned that there will be those who think they know your mission better than you do but you just have to be a nonconformist and trust yourself. She became intuitive and in touch with herself, realizing that nothing is last sacred but the integrity of her own mind. Jacobs implements Emerson’s thoughts through the “aboriginal self”.
Like nonconformist, the “aboriginal self” relies on his or her own wisdom. She kept the other slaves alive by her commitment to be free from the things that had her and her family bound. Jacob’s set a goal to earn her right as a woman and advocate independence, not only of thought but also of action. Instead of spending her time holding a grudge on her slave holder for all that he had done or complaining about being in a dark space for roughly seven years, she found ways to free herself from those things because to her, resentment was ignorance.
Although Jacobs knew the risk she was taking to be free, she wanted to pay a price for the redemption of her children and other slaves. Along with taking action to run away, Jacob’s found the courage and confidence to write a book (“From Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”). She was the first woman to write a narrative about her escape, as a slave woman, which revealed the truth about American slavery. Her story made it impossible for the American people to ignore the contradiction that the slaves went through.
Jacob’s was a woman of courage and she fearlessly kept dignity and family above all. In Jacob’s book, she tried to do more than just create sympathy for the life she lived; she aimed to win respect and admiration from her readers. After all, how could you not give a woman who “forestalled abuse, and for the independence with which she chose a lover”, her ability to stay in hiding, and her emphasis on family life and values (921) Jacob’s greatest ability was coming to know that the only way she would achieve at being great and self reliant is by focusing on herself and her independence.
Harriet Jacobs implemented Emerson’s thoughts on “Self-Reliance”, conformity, and the aboriginal self by being brave, being a nonconformist, and choosing to be herself. It was painful for Jacob’s to recall her lifeless years and she even noted that she would gladly forget them if she could. ”Yet, the retrospection is not altogether without solace…” (942). Her story ends with freedom. For her and her children are now free.
