Summary Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

In Harriet Jacobs “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” it address many issues of female bondage and sexual abuse from a woman’s prospective. Early in the writing, Linda states that “slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.” In this piece of writing, the writer Harriet Jacobs illustrates with great detail not only the horrors and violent inhumaneness endured by enslaved men, but as well as the fear that women withstood from the reality that their own children could be snatched from them at any moment and sold into slavery. To add to the degradation, women were also used as “breeders” by their masters to provide more bodies to tend to the fields and needs of the big house. Jacob’s specifically was speaking to the

Jacobs didn’t create a character that showed a supernatural physical strength, however, Linda Brent showed an exceptional amount of emotional and spiritual strength. This amount of strength and sanity was shown the most when Linda was forced to stay in her grandmother’s attic for seven long years. During the years of being in an attic, Linda went through much pain with her body and mind. Though her constant reminder that “God is merciful” and her constant help and support from her grandmother, uncles and brothers is what kept her hopeful mindset

After watching her beloved grandmother be sold and her brother being severely reprimanded for answering to a white mistress, Brent knows that it is best to keep quiet and keep her head low. Another example of the bondage and anguish from slavery is the difference of New Year’s Day to white people and slaves. As mentioned by Linda, New Year’s Day was hiring day and by January 2nd slaves were expected to leave their families and plantation and begin a new life with their new masters. Linda remembers when her own mother had to watch helplessly as all of her own seven children were sold. In many instances, this story is very common. Many mothers had to defenselessly watch as their own children were sold to a different plantation, sometimes states away. By Linda seeing in many cases, women being wrenched from their children and sold to “new” masters and often broken homes, this in fact made a powerful and affective impact on her because once she became of mother herself, she did everything she could possibly do to save her own children from the common pattern of breaking up a