Death is better than slavery

Death is better than slavery

Harriet Ann Jacobs, an African American woman who escaped from slavery and later wrote about her experiences in her autobiography "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," famously stated that "death is better than slavery." These powerful words encapsulate the unimaginable horrors and dehumanization that enslaved individuals endured during the antebellum period in America.

For Jacobs, who spent years hiding in a tiny attic space to escape the clutches of her abusive master, the idea of death was preferable to a life of bondage and oppression. Slavery stripped individuals of their basic human rights, dignity, and autonomy, subjecting them to physical and emotional abuse, forced labor, and separation from their families. The constant fear of punishment, violence, and exploitation made life under slavery a living nightmare for countless individuals like Jacobs.