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

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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobson is an account of her experience with slavery and her escape to freedom. The autobiography was written primarily to female readers in the North, informing them of the horrors of slavery and the sexual harassment experienced by many female slaves. Jacobson shares her own experience with sexual harassment using the pseudonym Linda Brent. Her abuser was her master, Dr. Flint. He had harassed her since she was fourteen, however he was never successful in having his way with her because regardless of being a slave, Linda was a strong, smart, brave woman who refused to submit to his will. Her character is adequately portrayed in a passage from chapter four where she expresses her thoughts …show more content…

Prior to this, Linda shares her disagreement with her grandmother’s submissive attitude towards slavery. Unlike her grandmother who believes slavery is God’s will, Linda condemns such thinking and believes God’s will is for her to be independent from any master and own a life of her own. This mentality is one that helps her defend herself from the verbal assaults of Dr. Flint. In the selected passage, Dr. Flint desperately wants to dehumanize Linda and make her believe she is nothing more than his property. His choice of words are harsh as he tells her that she was “made for his use...to obey his command in every thing…. nothing but a slave, whose will must and should surrender.” He uses sharp, taunting words meant to break the spirits of Linda in order to make her submissive. Linda, however without break or pause in the sentence structure quickly recalls that “Never, had my puny arm felt so strong.” These words seem to not bother her. They do not break her but instead awaken the rebellious spirit in her that defines her character. When Linda describes her “puny arm” as feeling strong, she does not mean physically strong. She is referring to the strength of her own convictions and belief in the wrong of slavery, her belief that she is a human being who cannot and should not be treated as

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Mary Rowlandson and Harriet Jacobs narratives Mary Rowlandson and Harriet Jacobs narration of their hard experience during captivity and slavery played a very significant role in revealing much about the conditions of women during that time. As most of the critics believe that telling a story from the point view of an oppressed group as women in a male dominant society, will guarantee a new framework of resistance and will break the typical image of women as being submissive and Marginalized. Moreover, these two writers, through their narration were able to endure all the difficulties and the hardships as loosing freedom and the sexual abuse, to seek the rights of all other women, and to fight for the elimination of both slavery and captivity. Harriet Jacobs in her narration of “Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by herself” decided to take the risk and to narrate her own experience as being slave and oppressed by the white system abuse. Although she is not the only one who wrote about slavery and its condition, but as William Andrews said “"Many of the ugly truths of the black woman's condition in slavery had been widely publicized

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In Incidents In the Life of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, Harriet shares her experience in slavery and how she overcame trials presented in the form of her master and mistress, and how she battled constant separation from her family and children. In order to protect herself from her master, who constantly attempts to pressure Harriet into a sexual relationship with him, Harriet becomes involved in a relationship with a white man and gains two children. However, in order to escape slavery, Harriet stays for seven years in a small shed in her grandmother’s home and eventually gains her freedom. The book shows that in a system of slavery, family ties and the idea of motherhood are two things that are almost unachievable due to the uncertainty

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The autobiography "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself" written by Harriet A. Jacob and published in 1861, is a story following the life of Linda Brent, set in North Carolina. At age six, her parents and her mother's mistress died, and she was sold to a man named Dr.Flint, a cruel and abusive man. She tried to escape, but during this time, it was easier said than done. This book follows Linda Brent and her true stories during slavery, and readers can truly understand what life was like for female slaves. While following Linda through her experiences, the author can convey an array of emotions using ethos, juxtaposition, and syntax.

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Douglass expressed that during the time of his life when he had been sent to live with Mr. Covey he was broken in not only body, but in soul and spirit as well (Douglass 1210.) When Douglass says,”You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man,” (Douglass 1211) the theme of perseverance is most evident. After he had been broken down to almost nothing, Douglass rose from the ashes and fought back; he fought Mr. Covey with all of his might just as if he were fighting slavery itself in human form (Douglass 1214.) This highlights again the key differences of the struggles of a male and a female who are reaching for the same gift of freedom. His main fears were only whether he would win the fight, since to preserve his reputation Mr. Covey could never send him before others.

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This was all shred to pieces with slavery. Douglass juxtaposes Mistress’ “lamb-like disposition” to “tiger-like fierceness” (¶ 2). This is a very power juxtaposition because it displays the cruelty and evil that lies within slavery, and what effect it has on even the kindest of souls. This also alludes to the Christian Bible, in the way that slavery is allowed by the Bible, and this clash between Mistress’ Christian values, and this idea of slavery, that ultimately results in the victory of slavery. The beginning of paragraph two begins by praising Mistress for “treat[ing] me as she supposed one human treat another” (¶ 2), and then speaks of the same Mistress, who “became even more violent in her opposition than her husband himself” (¶ 2).

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