Slave Women Thesis

Words: 517
Pages: 3

Outline for Research Paper
Topic: The experiences of being a woman in slavery. How slave narratives reveal the unspoken struggles of women during slavery and how they have been a critical part in telling the African American history.
Revised Question: How did women slave narratives exploit the struggles that women faced during slavery, and how did the efforts of ex-slave women contribute to ones understanding of slavery?
Revised working thesis: By analyzing numerous women slave narratives during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, these stories shed light on not only the physical struggles that women endured, but also the psychological obstacles that women faced. Through their own accounts, enslaved women speak up about their lives which translate into an
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Introduce the women’s narratives that had a significant impact. Harriet Jacobs, Sojourner Truth, Mattie Jackson
d. Thesis statement
e. Significance
i. The impact that enslaved women’s narratives had on the abolitionist movement. ii. The importance of informing the population
II. Enslaved women and finding their voices.
a. These narratives are important tools used to challenge the existing stereotype of slave women.
b. Slave narratives were a significant source that documented the slave experience.
c. These narratives reflect a level of defiance towards a system that undoubtedly oppressed women’s voices and their bodies.
d. The difference between a literate women slave and an illiterate women slave when writing their narratives.
III. Common themes in the narratives
a. The psychological abuses of slavery
b. The longing for creating a life for her and her children help the white women readers relate to her. But being a black woman excludes her from the realities of domesticity and keeps her from her children.
c. Physical abuses these women had to go through. Defies the stereotype that slaves were treated well and with respect. Allows the readers to gain sympathy
d. How absolute power