"God-breathing Machines"

This is how Harriet Jacobs refers to how slaves are treated. They are treated as machines that are used for work. Even though they are created by God, meaning that they are humans, slaveowners view them as being less than human. Slave women are reduced to just their bodies; as a machine that is only good for making having babies, thus creating more slaves. Slaveowners believed that slaves could not feel any human emotion. They would never really get tired, or sad or hungry. They are only a piece of property.

Danielle Galante