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Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl Analysis

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The early 17th century marked the beginning of slavery and so it was practiced for the next 250 years by the colonies and states in America. Slaves, mostly from Africa, worked in the production of tobacco crops and cotton. But later, the whites also started employing or ‘enslaving’ them by making them to work as slaves in their houses. This further led in the rise of ‘racism’ which talked about the discrimination among whites and black in the whole country. Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by Harriet Jacobs and published by L.Maria Child (in 1831), is an autobiography by the author herself which documents Jacobs’ life as a slave . The book starts when Jacobs is born as a slave in a city of North Carolina and then continues through her escape, her status as a runaway fugitive in the North, and finally her path to freedom when one of her northern white friends buys her in the year 1852. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl opens with an introduction in which the writer, Harriet Jacobs, expresses her purposes behind composing her life account. Like all other slaves, her life story was story was horrific and shocking enough that she would have rather kept it private, however she feels that making it open may help the abolitionist development and will probably make others aware that what all of them went through. An introduction by abolitionist Lydia Maria Child puts forth a comparative defense for the book and she thus keeps the story of Jacobs’ in
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