Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Linda Brent

In 1861, Harriet Jacobs publishes the first full-length slave narrative written by a woman under the pseudonym Linda Brent. In her autobiography, titled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet shines a light on the sexual harassment women endured under the system of slavery, however, with the Civil War in its midst the book didn’t get the attention it deserved until it was later recovered and widely published during 1987. Harriet takes the cultural narrative of the time period, men are superior and a woman's place is in the home, and effectively crafts her own story while dismantling these views (James 1-2). Simultaneously, Harriet grapples with telling the story of Dr. Flint’s, Harriet’s master, sexual pursuit of her and abiding by

Flint that she’s pregnant. With the imminent creation cottage, symbolizing as black woman's downfall, Harriet resolves to lose her virtue by taking ownership of her own body. The only way that this is possible for Harriet is to sleep with a free white man, who can help her escape her circumstances, and later buy her children. Before Harriet even shares this with the reader, she sets the stage by warning the reader and sharing her desperation to escape Dr. Flint’s grasp. Harriet says, “I thought and thought, till I became desperate” and “The remembrance fills me with sorrow and shame. It pains me to tell you of it” (Jacobs 59). Harriet’s feeling of shame and sorrow shows how she was raised to believe that purity is an essential quality for a woman. Throughout the text, when referencing the loss of her virtue, Harriet says things like “painful and humiliating memory,” “I felt wretched,” and “how humiliated I felt” (Jacobs 62). By losing her purity, Harriet essentially has lost her worth as a woman because of the extreme notion of remaining virtuous. As a result, shame and humiliation are the two of key emotions that overtake her. However, after her encounter with Dr. Flint, her shame quickly turns into anger. Forced to an extreme to protect herself, Harriet remembers what she’s lost, saying, “but for him [Dr. Flint] I might have been a virtuous, free, and happy wife” (Jacobs 65). In the

Flint’s sexual advances by losing her virtue as a woman is when she confides in her grandmother, only to be condemned and banished by her. Harriet’s grandmother says, “O Linda! Has it come to this? I had rather see you dead than to see you as you now are. You are a disgrace to you dead mother” (Jacobs 63). Harriet’s grandmother represents the typically Victorian Era parental figure by shaming Harriet for losing her purity. Harriet’s grandmother refuses to listen to her and immediately banishes Harriet because of her loss of virtue, even going as far as to rip Harriet mother’s wedding ring away from her. Harriet’s reaction to her grandmother’s words forces to grapple with seeing if losing her purity was actually the right choice. Harriet writes, “Bitter tears, such as the eyes never shed but once, were my only answer. I rose from my seat, but fell back again sobbing. She did not speak to me; but the tears were running down her furrowed cheeks and they scorched me like fire. She had always been so kind to me. So kind” (Jacobs 63). Harriet’s grandmother remains one of Harriet’s main support systems during her autobiography, but learning about her iniquity her grandmother’s treatment of Harriet vastly changes. For Harriet, pushed to the brink and forced to lose her virtue because of Dr. Flint, having her grandmother condemn her takes an emotional toll on her. Harriet continues,