Moral code of behavior

[GSLeloo]

Ok this is a paper I have for english, due friday. The text we had to read was "Incidents in the Life of a slave girl" the slave being a woman named Harriet Jacobs.

My question is she wants to write a paper focusing on the relations between balack and white, analyzing Jacobs' moral code of behavior. I don't exactly know what examples of a moral code of behavior are. So far I'm guessing like... not having sex without love and the bonds to family. Can anyone suggest any others?

[Ravenstorm]

Don't ask for suggestions. Write it based on what you consider moral behavior.

Raven

[Jorddyn]

Originally posted by Ravenstorm
Don't ask for suggestions. Write it based on what you consider moral behavior.

Raven

I don't know. It seems to me that the teacher is less asking her to compare her code to that of the girl in the book, and more asking her to define the code of the girl in the book.

Does she lie? Does she steal? Does she break the law? Is there a reason for any of these, or does she do it wantonly? What does she believe in, and what does she stand for?

Jorddyn, could be wrong

[GSLeloo]

It's about I think comparing her moral code to a white mans moral code. It's not about us it's about black versus white. She was taught by a mistress a lot of religion (now I am not religious at all so that doesn't help me).

One thing I have is that her master keeps pressuring her to have sex with him and she refuses because she wants to have sex with someone she loves, she wants to marry a man she loves. So I think that's one way...

It never says she really does anything wrong... I guess for that I can mirror her master as not caring about sex cause he's married and sleeps with his slaves... so for that one I'm set.

I just honestly can't think of two other examples of a moral code.... like not stealing doesn't apply cause it never says she steals.

[Ravenstorm]

I'd ask the professor to elaborate if I was unsure exactly what she wants.

Raven

[GSLeloo]

Well next time I see her is Friday and the paper is due Friday.

[Ravenstorm]

You're in college aren't you? Professor have offices with office hours posted. Most of them have phones with voice mail too so you can leave a message if they don't answer.

Raven

[Jazuela]

I haven't read the book...but if you feel one of the moral issues involves the master sleeping (or not) with the slaves, consider this:

When slavery was legal, slaves were not considered people. Sleeping with a slave isn't cheating on your wife, because you're not sleeping with another human being. You're essentially masturbating and using a sex-toy to help you along.

Whether or not we in modern society agree with this is irrelevent. This was the accepted *moral code* of the era. Furthermore, a wife was considered an inferior person to a husband; and females in general were considered inferior. What a wife thinks about her husband having sex with ANYONE OR ANYTHING was of no consequence at all. It wasn't her duty to care. It was her duty to keep house and have babies, take up embroidery, learn the social niceties, and keep her mouth shut about everything else.

Given all that info - how do you feel the slave's moral code coincides with yours, or the master's, or whatever your teacher is asking you to compare it to?

[Bobmuhthol]

What a great book where a slave owner pressures a slave into sex.

I could have sworn THEY RAPED THE SLAVES. So realistic!

[Jorddyn]

Originally posted by Bobmuhthol
What a great book where a slave owner pressures a slave into sex.

I could have sworn THEY RAPED THE SLAVES. So realistic!

Er, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this book autobiographical?

Jorddyn

[Bobmuhthol]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that not change anything?

Edit: Elaboration: Either this slave is bad at writing or Leloo doesn't know the difference between social interaction and rape.

[Edited on 9-22-2004 by Bobmuhthol]

[Jorddyn]

Originally posted by Bobmuhthol
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that not change anything?

Edit: Elaboration: Either this slave is bad at writing or Leloo doesn't know the difference between social interaction and rape.

[Edited on 9-22-2004 by Bobmuhthol]

:rolleyes:

Jorddyn

[longshot]

Originally posted by GSLeloo

I just honestly can't think....

This is nothing new.

Drop your classes while you can still get some sort of a refund.

There's definitely someone more worthy of the space you take up in the classroom.

[GSLeloo]

Originally posted by longshot

Originally posted by GSLeloo

I just honestly can't think....

This is nothing new.

Drop your classes while you can still get some sort of a refund.

There's definitely someone more worthy of the space you take up in the classroom.

Seriously your harassment is just getting pathetic. Try actually attacking me when your point means something.


Now for those who aren't just trying to blindly attack me.... it is autobiographical and that is a debate, if she was raped or not. The thing is that she managed to avoid him pretty well. She would sleep in the room of her aunt who he didn't want to deal with and once the wife got a word of it the wife also had her moved into her quarters so that he couldn't do it.

It never out and out says in the book that he did rape her or not. He was building her a cottage to live in so basically he could rape her there without his wife interfering. Um.. she instead sleeps with another white man and gets pregnant with his child, hoping her master would then sell her. He doesn't and the book ends there.

It does say she eventually runs away and hides in her grandmothers basement and eventually manages to escape to the north. Also it says that her master tries to find her in the north.... now it's also debatable if he actually loves her or if she was something he just couldn't have.

So on if he raped her or not it's opinion mostly.

[Keller]

Look upa book called Celia, A Slave. The story sounds very similar to Ms. Jacobs ... Celia might even be public access -- google it. Get a few quotes from it. e-mail me dustinjanes@adelphia.net and remind me, I'll give you a few ideas.

[Miss X]

Leloo was looking for suggestions Longshot, not personal insults, you don't have to post in her threads. Can we try and play nicely please? :)

[Jazuela]

I guess my last post was ignored. I'll try again.

According to the moral code of the time, it would be impossible to rape a slave. Slaves weren't people. They were property. THINGS. Animated objects. Nothing more, nothing less. Some of them were valued above others, but they were all disposable property.

And as such - rape would not be the correct term for sex with a slave. You can't rape an OBJECT. I believe this is the moral code that the teacher is most likely referring to in the assignment.

[Ravenstorm]

Originally posted by Bobmuhthol
Either this slave is bad at writing or Leloo doesn't know the difference between social interaction and rape.

Or maybe not everyone who owned slaves was a carbon copy of the evil master beating and raping his property? Maybe some of them wanted active cooperation so they could tell themselves it was okay?

Maybe the worls isn't so simplistic as to have only two options.

What a concept.

Raven

[Jorddyn]

Originally posted by Jazuela

According to the moral code of the time, it would be impossible to rape a slave. Slaves weren't people. They were property. THINGS. Animated objects. Nothing more, nothing less. Some of them were valued above others, but they were all disposable property.

And as such - rape would not be the correct term for sex with a slave. You can't rape an OBJECT. I believe this is the moral code that the teacher is most likely referring to in the assignment.

While that may have been the dominate moral code, it was hardly the one of all people. It is possible that someone felt keeping slaves was acceptable, while forcing sex upon them was not.

I also feel fairly comfortable in making the assertion that the "object" most certainly considered the act rape.

Jorddyn

[GSLeloo]

You would be very true in terms of court. If she tried to sue him for raping her it'd be thrown out because she is property. A difference between blacks and whites. But the essay question is asking about the slaves moral code and she doesn't want to have sex with him unless she loves him.

[GSLeloo]

http://docsouth.unc.edu/jacobs/jacobs.html

That is actually what we read but ours stopped soon after she had her baby.

I am thinking, is integrity a moral code? Because if it is... maybe I can try to spin that she was living by her integrity by not just giving in to him and by working to avoid him even if it could make it better. And he lacks integrity because.... uh... he didn't respect her wishes.

[Latrinsorm]

Every choice we make has a moral implication. Work from there.

[GSLeloo]

I think I may have found my thesis statement, feel free to comment if you find it off or wrong. It needs to be reworded but here's the basis.


The relation between blacks and whites in the American slave era in the south can be seen by looking at events in Harriet Jacobs life where her moral standings on sex, family, and integrity were put in peril by the white slave owners.