Love Vs. Jealous

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The Slave Book by Rayda Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs are both books about slavery that bring across strong messages to the reader. One constant that can be noticed in these two books is the different ways in which women react and form relationships with each other in this time period. The relationships that are formed between women in this book are almost always at completely different ends of the relationship spectrum with no middle ground; they either have unconditional love for each other or one is envious of another and she tries to frighten the other woman because of that. From reading The Slave Book and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, it can be seen that there were really two types of relationships that women had with other women during this time period; they were either very close in a motherhood or sibling sort of relationship, or they were seen as rivals in a relationship in which one was jealous of the other and therefore acts very powerful over that woman.

One of the two major ways in which relationships are shown between women in these two books is the idea of having a family type relationship with someone who is not actually in your family. This type of relationship is seen at many times throughout both of the books. Probably the most prominent example of this relationship occurring between two people who are not actually related is the relationship that builds between Rachel and Somiela in The Slave Book. Rachel becomes a mother figure to Somiela when she cannot be with her real mother and Rachel helps her through many tough times throughout the book. It is seen at many instances, such as when Andries has Somiela wash him naked, that if Somiela would not have been able to talk to Rachel and tell her what was happening, she might not have made it through that situation (Jacobs R, 179). In addition to that motherhood relationship, the relationship between Someila and her actual mother, Noria, is also present and very strong. Someila is comfortable to go to her mother for her problems even though they have not seen or even talked to each other in many months. This fact just shows how strong a relationship like this one was during this time that no matter what came between them they were always there for each other at least in spirit if they were not able to physically be there.