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Analysis Of Harriot Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

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Harriot Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1860) is a personal and extremely detailed autobiographical account of her life as an antebellum slave in the South. The book was such a key milestone in the abolitionist movement as most of its target audience consisted of white people who were either already receptive to the abolitionist cause or could be persuaded to do so. The account, penned under the pseudonym Linda Brent, details Jacobs' fight for freedom and the various forms of oppression she experienced as a slave, including sexual abuse, physical abuse, and psychological trauma. The two concepts of slavery and freedom are heavily touched upon and juxtaposed in her writing. Jacobs illustrates the precarity of finding freedom in …show more content…

In order to escape the abuse of Dr. Flint, Jacobs hid in the attic crawl space of her grandmother, Aunt Martha, because she didn't want to leave her family unattended. Jacobs describes the pain she felt when she was separated from her children as she attempted to escape, saying, "presently two sweet little faces were looking up at me, as though they knew I was there, and were conscious of the joy they imparted. How I longed to tell them I was there!." (p.175) This quote illustrates how Jacobs was forced to watch her children from a peephole in the room without them even knowing she was there. Even though she has been freed through her escape from the cruelty of her tormentor, the forced abandonment of her children as well as her newfound inability to physically be present in their lives without being recaptured has created a new sort of imprisonment. Overall, the condition of slavery has put a strain on Jacob's closest familial bonds, making her escape from literal abuse a conduit to a tragic form of emotional …show more content…

The strain on the familial bonds stemming from her former enslavement follows Jacobs even after her escape from the south and reunion with her children in Boston. This is illustrated through the narrator's sense of uneasiness while in New York, “When I took the children out to breathe the air, I closely observed the countenances of all I met. I dreaded the approach of summer when snakes and slaveholders make their appearance. I was, in fact, a slave in New York, as subject to slave laws as I had been in a Slave State.” (P.290) This quote highlights the fact that the current laws in America, allowing slave owners to travel through supposedly free states in order to recapture or kill escapees from the South. This cumulates in a sense of dread for Jacobs as neither she nor her children can ever truly free herself from her past as she will always be on the run. While both she and her children may be freed from their physical imprisonment south their familial bond has been forever tainted by the threat of

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127 Words | 1 Pages

Harriet A. Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina in 1813 and became a fugitive in the 1830s. She recorded her triumphant struggle for freedom in an autobiography that was published pseudonymously in 1861. As Linda Brent, the book 's heroine and narrator, Jacobs recounts the history of her family: a remarkable grandmother who hid her from her master for seven years: a brother who escaped and spoke out for abolition; her two children, whom she rescued and sent north. She recalls the degradation of slavery and the special sexual oppression she found as a slave woman: the master who was determined to make her his concubine. With Frederick Douglass 's account of his life, it is one of the two archetypes in the genre of the slave

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579 Words | 3 Pages

As a woman, Harriet Jacobs faced unique challenges in the slave society. She was forced to endure sexual abuse from her owner and struggled to protect her children from the same abuse. This experience is clear in her narrative, which focuses mainly on the sexual misuse of female slaves. She writes with passion, using her own experiences to gain the attention of free women in the North (Jacobs).

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When Jacobs escapes to New York, she is employed as a nurse to a white family and often accompanies them to dinners and events. This experience teaches Jacobs that even though most people in the North considered themselves abolitionists, they were still racist toward African Americans. While at a dinner with the family she is employed by, she is asked to “seat the little girl in the chair, and stand behind it and feed her,” (page 144) when she sits the child in her lap. She emphasizes the fact that no matter where she goes, slavery and racism will always follow

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Jacobs was able to have her family near her for much of her life in slavery, particularly her grandmother. Jacobs writes,”To this grandmother I was indebted for many comforts.” (806). Jacobs also later mentions, “I was indebted to her for all my comforts, spiritual or temporal” (2). Jacobs felt that her grandmother helped her so much through these times that she would never be able to repay the comfort she received from her grandmother and all the good deeds she did for her.

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1275 Words | 6 Pages

Jacob had a good relationship with her mother’s mistress after her mother died. Her mother worked under her mistress for many years, her mother was able to gain some respect from her mistress. When she died, the mistress seemed to take Jacobs under her wing to take care of her. The mistress taught Jacobs how to read, this also ignited a desire for freedom. (Jacobs,

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1188 Words | 5 Pages

The life of Harriet Jacobs, as relayed in “Incidents,” reveals that there is no true freedom even upon escaping for enslaved Black people in the United States, yet unlike the typical slave’s life, she had a relatively less harsh life by being a house slave. Her life shares the fear Black slaves have to live with, particularly even after escaping. However, she does have her own experience in slavery that does not correspond with other slaves. Regardless, both her shared and personal experience illustrates the life of enslaved Black people.

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Jacobs’ choice to flee her master’s plantation exemplifies her fierce desire for independence and self-determination. It exhibits her unwavering character in the face of overwhelming suffering and the lengths she will go to secure the fundamental right to freedom. Her battle for freedom becomes a guiding force in the story, highlighting the unbreakable spirit and tenacity of enslaved people who dared to resist the harsh institution of slavery. In addition, Jacobs’ efforts to free others from slavery show her purpose to stir the readers’ morals and motivate them to take a stand against the heinous institution of slavery. She wants to highlight the injustice and violence inherent in the system by discussing her experiences as an enslaved person.

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187 Words | 1 Pages

Jacobs shows that slaves feelings were insignificant when she stated, “Why does the slave ever love? Wgt allow the tendrils of the heart twine around objects which may at any moment be wrenched away by the hand of violence.” Jacob did not see the point of slaves falling in love because they weren’t allowed to be with the person they loved. Slave owners

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Analogous in form to the spiritual autobiography, the slave narrative emphasizes the difficulty of upholding moral goodness under the weight of slavery. By revealing herself as a “fallen woman” Jacobs creates a hazardous problem, capable of eliminating the sympathies of a primarily white audience. Moreover, Jacobs risks portraying herself as an impure woman, whose virtuousness departs from the piousness and gracefulness typically exemplified by the ideal woman or “angel in the house,” according to the “Cult of True Womanhood.” Therefore, in an effort to preserve the ethos of her argument, Jacobs attributes her unchaste condition to the systemic effects of American slavery. Hoping to destroy the ideology of benign paternalism, Jacobs reveals her consequential ethical dilemma through a faint description of her master’s, Dr. Flint’s, licentious behavior.

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Jacobs was born into slavery. Her owner Mr. Flint made her live in their house because they were scared she would try to escape if she lived in the slave quarters. Little did her owner know she was slowly

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1743 Words | 7 Pages

“By degrees, a more tender feeling crept into my heart. He was an educated and eloquent gentleman; too eloquent, alas, for the poor slave girl who trusted in him.” In the early 1830’s, as a slave, you did what you were told and you weren’t supposed to ask questions or say no. That is just how things were back then and if you did otherwise you were beaten and punished for it by a white man. “Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in Edenton, North Carolina, in 1813.

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894 Words | 4 Pages

Harriet Jacobs experienced firsthand how slavery within the white household degrades the virtue and motherly instinct of white women. Throughout the 18th century, Jacobs is passed from owner to owner relearning their rules and regulations of the house. Jacobs knew nothing different, but noticed how her owners would slowly change and their caring humanitarian actions would start to diminish. Jacobs was not the only one who noticed her owners changing, the whole world began to take note of the dwindling virtue in all women. Harriet Jacobs experienced firsthand how slavery within the white household degrades the virtue white women by ridding them of compassion and altering their perception of what is right and wrong.

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520 Words | 3 Pages

The emotional and sexual abuse was awful for Jacobs. In her narrative she talks about how horrible it really was for women "My master began to whisper foul words in my ear." Her master told her she was property "He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things." She says how she had to give up their children "The children were sold to a slave-trader,

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769 Words | 4 Pages

At the age of six, her mother died and she was forced to live with Margaret Horniblow, the mother’s owner. The mistress took a good care of Jacobs and taught her how to read, write and sew. Her father was always telling her to feel free and do not feel someones property. While her grandmother was always teaching Jacobs respect and manners. She was always telling her about principles and ethnics.

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1409 Words | 6 Pages

Benny and Ellen, however, were sold by Dr. Flint as retaliation against Jacobs, who refused to subject to Dr. Flints, sexual advances. This event would spark the encouragement Jacobs needs to the break free from the bondage that separated a mother and her children. Jacobs escapes the plantation and confines herself to a small attic inside her maternal grandmother’s home. Although the living arrangements were of discomfort, from the attic Jacobs was able to watch over her children, which gave her great peace and satisfaction. After seven years hiding in an attic, Jacobs escapes the plantation and head North to New York, where she soon come to realize minimal progress in the treatment of free slaves, including her Ellen, who has not been

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