Slavery lasted for many years, and while it is acknowledged what slavery was it is not understood how harsh living as a slave was. Harriet Jacobs, also known as Linda Brent in her story Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, was a slave for twenty-seven years . Her story that was assumed to be incredible, is a non-fiction book of her life reviewed by many students and teachers. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl describes Linda Brent’s strengths and weaknesses in her time by discussing her family life, her religious beliefs, and the morals that those had around her. The strength that Harriet Jacobs had with her family, religion, and morality were easily threatened. Harriet was born a slave but because she was sheltered she did not know of her status till she reached the age of six years old. Her childhood was surrounded with love her father was a carpenter who lived and worked out of state to provide for his family, her maternal grandmother who she considered a treasure, and her younger brother William who she considered to be a bright child but was also a slave. After the passing of her mother, at age six, Harriet and her brother were …show more content…
In a review by Reginald Horsman , he calls Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl fascinating, incredible, and authentic. This work was significant because it revealed the aspects of her private life while signifying the importance of the history of woman and history of women slaves. Horsman identified that the narrative combination of an escaped slave narrative with a sentimental novel was a key weakness . In a second review by Martha J. Cutter interprets the weakness of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl as how to use language in a way to achieve her liberation. A strength that Harriet has is her ability to surpass the oppressive nature of her master’s