Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

According to “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, Harriet Jacobs shares the story of her life, under the pseudonym “Linda”, to inform her audience of the many challenges she faced having been born into slavery in the 1800’s. From the challenges that she faced in childhood, which carried through into adulthood and motherhood, Linda exhibits tremendous courage as she confronts the struggles brought on by the grueling world of slavery. Although she was able to escape from it later in life, she never really knew what freedom was supposed to be.

Jacobs starts her story by reminiscing on her past, of being born into slavery, telling us what growing up was like for her living under that circumstance. As the slave laws were still in effect then,

(Jacobs 922) This is where her grandmother became famous for baking crackers with the neighbors, with the intention of purchasing back her children from the profits made from selling her baked goods. In the same respect, we find out later that Linda, just as her grandmother, faces the same fear and struggle of being separated from her children. Unlike her uncles and aunts, Linda was lucky enough not to endure the same as her grandmother. However, she lived in fear that one day her master would do the

When Dr. Flint forbade Linda from marrying the man of her choice, Linda felt the necessity to involve herself with a white unmarried man, who felt a great deal of sympathy toward and wished to aid her. In him, she found the “freedom of having a lover who (had) no control over you.” (Jacobs 929) Two children sprung from their union, but having the first child was the scariest. When Linda continued to refuse Dr. Flint’s continual sexual advances, he would threaten to sell her child. Then when he found out about the second pregnancy, things became worse and he immediately cut off all of her hair and struck her. He vowed to make her suffer to “the last of (her) days” and continued to treat her with violence and verbal abuse, because he took the matter of her second pregnancy personally, as “a new crime against him”. (Jacobs 933) For those who were born into slavery and endured the pains associated with it, almost all never had the opportunity to experience what we know as freedom today. What readers can gain from this story is a whole new perspective on our basic human rights, because, as Linda put it, “You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom”. (Jacobs