Linda Brent - Linda is the character Jacobs is portrayed through. In the beginning of the narrative Linda does not recognize herself as a slave. Her parents shelter her which in turn allows her to hold on to her self-worth. As Linda grows older she begins to be sexually harassed by her master. She does whatever she can to spite him which gives her almost like a sense of freedom. She even goes as far as having an affair with another slave master in order to show her master that she still has control of some aspects of her life. Linda is very protective of her family just as her parents were to her. This causes her to be torn between a desire for personal freedom and a feeling of responsibility to her family. Dr. Flint - Dr. Flint is Linda’s master and represents the evilness of the entire slave system. He is driven by the empowerment that slavery grants him. He has no moral compass and the only …show more content…
Linda states that of the first things she can recollect in her life was witnessing a slave on her plantation being brutally beaten by Dr. Flint. She recounts the memory when writing, “I saw the cowhide still wet with blood, and the boards all covered with gore” (23). Mrs. Flint is portrayed as having almost the same amount of violence and cruelty, even though she and her husband are considered Christians. To ensure that the cooks could not take home the left overs Jacobs writes that Mrs. Flint would “spit in all the kettles and pans” (22) forcing them to go home hungry. Mrs. Flint would even force Linda’s Aunt to sleep on the floor even when she was pregnant causing her to give birth to many stillborn babies. Slaves are also burned, frozen, and whipped to death in this narrative. Jacobs recounts one event of torture when she writes that a slave was, “washed with brine, tossed into a cart, and carried to jail” after they had been just whipped