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

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In the book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs argued that slavery should be abolished. According to Jacobs, slavery should be abolished because, "slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the blacks” (Jacobs, 462) because of the intensive abuse imposed on all those involved in slavery. Jacobs used an exhaustive list of examples of physical, sexual, emotional and mental abuse in the book.
Although Harriet Jacobs had a very fortunate upbringing (Jacobs, 415), starting in her early teenage years in her life, Jacobs saw and experienced many forms of physical abuse to the slaves around her. If a slave was unwilling to cooperate and comply with the commands of his or her master, that slave would be "whipped, or locked up in jail, until he …show more content…

Jacobs was a witness to one of these occasions was when, at the age of 14, she witnessed the whipping of a plantation slave. She heard his cries and trembled at the sounds ringing through her mind for months after the event (Jacobs, 421-422). Later in her life, Jacobs fell in love with a free black man. When Dr. Flint, her owner, found this out, he called her into his study and questioned her. When she answered honestly, Dr. Flint "sprang on [her] like a tiger, and gave [her] a stunning blow” (Jacobs, 448). These inhumane acts of violence were not only present on Flint's property. One of Flint's neighbors, a lady named Mrs. Wade, on whose property was no "cessation of the lash" (Jacobs, 457). A slave described Mrs. Wade's house saying "It is hell in missis's house. 'Pears I can never get out. Day and night I prays to die" (Jacobs, 475). Another neighbor had a slave named James. James was caught in an attempt to escape and was subsequently beaten to the pleasure of the overseer, washed in brine to prevent a proper healing of his

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