Dear Charlotte,

I find you possess quite a perplexing character. I find that I hold some of you quite dear. Your brilliance in literature and dedication to abolition are most admirable. Nonetheless, I can't empathize with your self loathing with your blatant inability to recognize your own power and not recognize how white standards have tainted you. Lastly, what pushes me most to feel some contempt towards you is that you are the pinnacle of what a black woman ought to be: demure and quiet and never out of place. You are what black men wanted us to be; a shadow of the white standard for femininity and I'm not sure I can respect something that to me feels so false. Forgive me if I offend you.

-Harriet Jacobs