i am reading A Girl Threatened by Sexual Exploitation by Harriet Jacobs.

Question

Can someone please explain what this excerpt mean?
"No matter whether the slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as her mistress. In either case, there is no shadow of law to protect her from insult, from violence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by fiends who bear the shape of men. The mistress, who ought to protect the helpless victim, has no other feelings towards her but those of jealousy and rage."

Thank you

Answer 1

Masters could do anything to their slaves, including killing them. Rights of slaves didn't exist; no laws protected them.

Answer 2

Ms. Sue,
also does it mean that no matter the skin color, black or white, the law didn't protect any woman from insult violence or even death. and all this was done by men. or am I interpreting it wrong?

Answer 3

No, it just applies to slaves. Even the child of a white father, if the mother was a slave, is still a slave. A few slaves had several white ancestors and looked white.

"No matter whether the slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as her mistress."

Answer 4

Slavery has existed since humans could subdue other humans. If you need more information, you can read about how slaves were treated in ancient days and more recent days, too:

https://www.google.com/search?q=laws+regarding+slaves+in+old+testament&oq=laws+regarding+slaves+in+old+testament&aqs=chrome..69i57.8050j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

and

https://www.google.com/search?ei=hi7sXIqzN4m0swXenoSgAQ&q=laws+regarding+slaves+in+greece&oq=laws+regarding+slaves+in+greece&gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i299.91232.92313..92556...0.0..0.155.769.0j6......0....1..gws-wiz.......33i22i29i30j33i160.-xe3BYE30VA

and

https://www.google.com/search?ei=5C7sXPa9EouQtQXdjb3QDA&q=laws+regarding+slaves+in+china&oq=laws+regarding+slaves+in+china&gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i22i29i30.26188.27070..27261...0.0..0.176.657.0j5......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71j33i299j33i160.HBSMF6aZd0E

And THEN, consider the word "trafficking" that's used today. That word should be eradicated and "slavery" used in its place.