Analysis Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

Running Freedom

Deliberately, Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, wrote her own autobiography with her life’s truth. Even though, at the time, memoirs released by woman were far and few between, Jacobs felt it crucial to tell her experience. Often, in the history of African Americans, the details are being altered and not given the depth of the rigorousness conditions endured. Specifically, within in the book, Jacobs explains one important aspect of herself and her life, her two children. Naturally, her instincts as a mother was to fight for her children and their willing being. For this reason, her paternalistic actions became the common theme throughout the book. As, the fake letter in her fifth year of hiding,

If not, I beg you to send my children to the north. I cannot live any longer without them” (Jacobs, 2001, p. 107). Without a doubt, most mothers under similar situations would do what was necessary for their children. Basically, the pleading of a woman to another woman within the language used and the mental imagines she created of a woman without her children. Although that letter that was written to through her owner off her trail, the passion of the words would conclude that by any means necessary she will be free and so will her children. Nonetheless, the article of Mother's intuition: Why we should follow our 'gut feelings’ speaks specifically to the root of Jacobs emotional grounds of defense of her actions. It reads “Scientifically, intuition is difficult to explain because it’s usually a one-off occurrence, something that doesn’t happen repeatedly or under the same circumstances each time” (Brasfield, 2013). Therefore, pleading in many cases that it is in her benign nature as well as other mothers to understand her

While, the theme of the book can be misinterpreted because of the systemic construction of slavery, Jacobs emphasizes the challenges of her position in serval different situations. In addition, she proves that mothers will through intuition and obligation would fight for their children. However, in an era where woman of a hierarchy based on race owes others nothing, she took on the task by telling her story. Also, adding that the incidents she experienced are true. Admittedly, the simple jester of pleading to her readers, brings forth the truth of her parental obligation to children. Running and