Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

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Charles River Editors chronicles the life of the mountain man. Hill Harper reveals ways to spark honest dialogue between men and women. The Book of Secret Wisdom: Prepare to discover the most ancient and secret book, which will reveal the true purpose of your existence both on Earth and in the Universe. From Library Journal Published in , this was one of the first personal narratives by a slave and one of the few written by a woman.

Dover Thrift Editions Paperback: Dover Publications; Reprint edition November 9, Language: Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The Count of Monte Cristo: Value-priced, preferred choice for today's students, educators, and classic literature lovers. Sense and Sensibility Modern Library Classics. Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Rated by customers interested in.

Is this feature helpful? Thank you for your feedback. Read reviews that mention slavery douglass american frederick slaves narrative account freedom woman human today school required class heart jacobs america truly important perspective. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. This autobiography was assigned to me when I was a junior in high school. Three years later, as a sophomore in college, I was asked to read the book again for my class on Black Thought and Literature. I wish that I had taken the time to slow down and analyze Frederick Douglass' narrative from a literal, analytical, and figurative perspective.

The emotion and conviction with which the author writes is not only poetic and moving, but captivating as well. The imagery, combined with Douglass' views on religion's role in the enslavement of black bodies, masterfully paints a story that in combination with other narratives has, unfortunately, been lost throughout time. In fact, many Black writers during this period refused to publish their experiences for fear that they will be caught and returned to slavery. In other cases, some writers used pen names to add some anonymity to their experiences. Nevertheless, such works should be cherished and valued; for they allow us to gain a better understanding of how far our society has come, and how much more needs to be done to ensure a future where everyone is equal in the truest sense of the word.

This is the edition close to the original. Harriet Jacobs lived life at so many odds - she was a slave, but a well-treated one, by most standards. She wasn't beaten, or worked to the brink of death. She wasn't forced to watch her children be sold away from her one by one, as many other slave mothers were. In her community, her family was pretty well-respected and even loved, despite their being chattel. But the degradation and humiliation and constant risk of abuse and assault and death at the whim of someone who would be legally protected, and even socially justified, in mistreating you is just as punishing.

So what do you choose? The horrific life you know and have come to expect, the life that is not your own, where your family could be snatched from you at a moment's notice Harriet chose the latter, and in doing so willingly constrained herself to a life much smaller and harder than she'd ever had to live through before - but with the prospect of freedom at the end of it. In a lot of ways, this book reminded me of Anne Frank's diary. The story of people so persecuted that their option is to be hauled away to be mistreated and killed, or to hide in cramped quarters with the hope of being overlooked and one day find their way to a better life.

Harriet's story took place many years before Anne's did I'm glad that things worked out for Harriet. I only wish more had been as lucky. Or, if I could have a real wish granted, I'd wish that humans were just better people in general, and that we didn't feel the need to subjugate, exploit, and kill others for their own gain.

This is THE autobiography of slavery. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible but they are nevertheless strictly true. I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery, on the contrary, my descriptions fall far short of the facts. I have concealed the names of places and given persons fictitious names. I had no motive for secrecy on my own account, but I deemed it kind and considerate towards others to pursue this course. I wish I were more competent to the task I have undertaken. But I trust my readers will excuse deficiencies in consideration of circumstances.

I was born and reared in Slavery and I remained in a Slave State twenty seven years. Since I have been at the North it has been necessary for me to work diligently for my own support and the education of my children. This has not left me much leisure to make up for the loss of early opportunities to improve myself and it has compelled me to write these pages at irregular intervals whenever I could snatch an hour from household duties.

I have been waiting for awhile to write about this book. I have read and listened to a few slave narratives, but I believe, though the narration is very 19th century, the content is the most compelling slave narrative ever written. Frederick Douglass ' autobiography is the most well-known and most eloquent, but this story by Harriet Jacobs is the most incredible and powerful and offers a view of slavery that many people do not really read about.

We get to see slavery through the eyes, not only of a "house slave", but of a woman who was enslaved. Like Douglass, Jacobs was mixed-race and secretly became literate. But unlike him, she had the use of pure physical violence sort-of replaced with constant sexual violence since age Her time in slavery was between being molested and harassed by her master and being beaten and abused by her master's wife out of jealousy. One of the ways she initially tries to stop this is by taking a white lover who she had two children by him.

I do not want to reveal too much, but if you are familiar with The Diary of a Young Girl this is where we are going. Jacobs had twice tried to escape, but was caught so she pulls off an amazing gambit on her third try. While some slaves escaped, they did not always go straight north. The suffering of women as daughters, sisters, and mothers and grandmothers is examined in a personal way that you do not get with a Frederick Douglass. What is interesting also is that she talks in the beginning of how she did not realize that she was a slave until she was six years old.

It reminds of when I reflected on my own childhood and realized that I did not know I lived in a ghetto until I was I was around seven; I am not a expert of child psychology, but that is still worth note. We know now of the horrors that African-American women faced during slavery, but this was a revolutionary account in when this book was published. Harriet Jacobs was a busy woman and she was as dedicated to the cause of freedom and respect for African-Americans as anyone during the 19th century.

Her brother also published a slave narrative. I and my children are now free! I We are as free from the power of slaveholders as are the white people of the north; and though that, according to my ideas, is not saying a great deal, it is a vast improvement in my condition. The dream of my life is not yet realized. I do not sit with my children in a home of my own. I still long for a hearthstone of my own, however humble. I wish it for my children's sake far more than for my own.

But God so orders circumstances as to keep me with my friend Mrs. Love, duty, gratitude, also bind me to her side. It is a privilege to serve her who pities my oppressed people, and who has bestowed the inestimable boon of freedom on me and my children. It has been painful to me, in many ways, to recall the dreary years I passed in bondage. I would gladly forget them if I could.

Yet the retrospection is not altogether without solace; for with those gloomy recollections come tender memories of my good old grandmother, like light fleecy clouds floating over a dark and troubled sea. It is a sad illustration of the condition of this country, which boasts of its civilization, while it sanctions laws and customs which make the experiences of the present more strange than any fictions of the past. Jul 03, Stephani rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Anyone who wants to learn about slavery from the "house negro" POV.

Next time you hear somebody going on about how the "mulatto" or "house negro" class in slave days were "privileged" and "got over" on the "field negroes," tell them to read this book. Sure, the "mulatto" or "light-skinned" slaves got to work in the house or were sometimes allowed to work away from the plantation in a trade and sometimes got to keep their own money. If they were really lucky, they might be taught to read on the sly. However, these "privileges" were likely to be taken away at any m Next time you hear somebody going on about how the "mulatto" or "house negro" class in slave days were "privileged" and "got over" on the "field negroes," tell them to read this book.

However, these "privileges" were likely to be taken away at any momemt at the whim of a slaveholder: If they needed money, the slave could be sold away to less comfortable circumstances. Or a "nice" slaveholer could die, leaving the slave to someone not so nice -- someone who might want to sexually abuse the slave, for instance. Sexual abuse of female slaves, especially house slaves, and the sexual hypocrisy of the times really makes this book stand out from, say, Frederick Douglass' narrative.

Harriet Jacobs is so worried about people judging her for turning to another White man and having babies with him in the hope that it will make her evil lech "master" leave her alone. If she had succumbed to her "master's" lechery, she would have been viewed as just another slave woman forced to be a "bed wench.

This book makes you glad those days are over for more reasons than one. Dec 17, Sarah rated it it was ok Recommends it for: Well, it's a detailed book of the de-womanizing cruelties of slavery, which is always an interesting and educational read, but never easy or uplifting read. One thing I liked about this book compared to other slavery experience books I've read is the heart-wrenching description of the "slave mother's" soul, heartache, trials, worries, etc.

The huge reason, though, I only gave this book 2 stars was because of my innate skepticism and the debated controversary always surrounding this book--many sa Well, it's a detailed book of the de-womanizing cruelties of slavery, which is always an interesting and educational read, but never easy or uplifting read. The huge reason, though, I only gave this book 2 stars was because of my innate skepticism and the debated controversary always surrounding this book--many say that these events didn't happen to a real person, but were collected stories. Others, including the book itself, purport these experiences were all from and about one real woman, Harriett, who wrote the book.

Of course I believe these atrocities occured and I shudder at the experiences, but the writer of this book seemed to have too grand and all-encompassing, philosophical, world-wide, and academic-thesis of a view on the experience. I would think a biography of a woman raised in slavery would be succinct, with simple, matter-of-fact statements, and un-flowerly language. This book was full of flowerly fluff and grandiose lamentations. I believe Harriett exisited and that these horrible things happened to her, but I think the editor was an abolitionist that took Harriett's 50 page story and blew it up into a huge flowery-fluffy-non-Harriett-like soap opera with unlikely philosophical understanding of the entire evil institution of slavery.

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Okay, the cutest old man was one of our bazillion proctors at the bar exam and I joked with him in the elevator about how if I were him, I'd be freaking psyched for the day because it would mean 8 hours of reading. He told me all about how he was reading this interesting book. He came over later and asked me for my address so he could mail it to me when he finished it: What a sweetheart Okay, the cutest old man was one of our bazillion proctors at the bar exam and I joked with him in the elevator about how if I were him, I'd be freaking psyched for the day because it would mean 8 hours of reading.

I'm giving him Coming of Age in Mississippi tomorrow: View all 9 comments. Courtesy of my blog, www. I place living in quotations to demonstrate the difference between living a life, which connotes freedom, and surviving a life, which illustrates a resemblance of a life within another's desire to wrap cruel albatrosses around your neck, proverbial and literal. Jacobs' life began as a slave. She's never known freedom otherwise until her heartbreaking story leads to her fr Courtesy of my blog, www. She's never known freedom otherwise until her heartbreaking story leads to her freedom.

Through various vignettes, she paints the picture of life with the evil industry, known as slavery. From favoritism based on complexion i. To call this story heartbreaking and unflinching feels basic. I could throw all the twenty-dollar words my education via blood, sweat, and tears of my ancestors sacrificed for me at this piece. Yet, I'd still feel unworthy of describing what she shares in the book, as if it's not my place to put her pain and the pain of others into words.

I should just listen and learn without repeating the lack of humanity demonstrated. I shall not outline too much because I want you to capture the story yourself. But, indeed, inhumanity prevails as one clear comparison of inhumanity appears. To save herself from her owner's incessant sexual harassment, Ms. History insists on repeating Unfortunately, when slavery's discussed, we focus on male slaves. Their stories ring truer, due to misogyny and sexism.

Female slaves and their stories find themselves in the back. Perhaps, their stories present harsher tales, including rape, sexual harassment, and watching their children kidnap and sold miles from them at any given age. Their pain rings deeper and many wish to not surround themselves in the deeper and complex horrors they offer, which causes further pain, as their stories require discussion and recognition too.

Just like Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass , this story, along with Jubilee , deserve study in America's classrooms without delay.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs

Their pain is our pain, and we should never forget them. First-hand account of slavery written by a 19th century former slave and later abolitionist named Harriet Jacobs. She published this novel in under the pseudonym Linda Brent. Jacobs was born in Edenton North Carolina in Both of her parents were biracial slaves and her maternal grandmother was highly respected in the small town Edenton by both white and black folks. Jacobs' mother belonged to a kind mistress who taught Jacobs how to read and write.

When Jacobs was 12 years old, both First-hand account of slavery written by a 19th century former slave and later abolitionist named Harriet Jacobs. When Jacobs was 12 years old, both of her parents had passed away already and her mistress just died. Jacobs was handed over to her mistress's five year old niece, whose father Dr.

Norcom became obsessed with Jacobs. As a teenager, Jacobs was incessantly harassed by Dr. He even built a small cottage in a remote area, where he fancied to keep Jacobs as his concubine. To deal with this problem, Jacobs willingly got pregnant by a local white lawyer named Samuel Sawyer. Even though they conceived two children, Dr. Norcom still terrorized Jacobs and threatened to harm her children. The situation became increasingly impossible for Jacobs to evade Dr. In , she ran away and hid in several friends' homes including the home of a local rich white woman, who revered Jacobs' grandmother.

Jacobs ended up hiding in her grandmother's house, in a tiny space between the roof and the storage room, which could only be entered through a folding door which was located in a built-in cupboard constructed by her uncle! She stayed there for 7 years unbeknownst to her own children who were living with their great-grandmother. In , Jacobs finally found a way to escape to the North. I don't want to reveal all the details of her life, but her story is fascinating. I have only read one other first-hand slavery account Twelve Years a Slave , but Jacobs' story is different because she was born into slavery.

Her story is horrific, but at the same time very inspiring, especially her views on humanity and her philosophy of life. She simply believes that one person cannot "own" another person. The laws at that time permitted slavery. Despite what the law said, Jacobs was adamant that slavery is wrong. What impressed me the most was her detailed description of the relationship between the slave and the slave-owner. It's a very one-sided relationship, and yet psychologically very complicated. We all know that male-slave owners could do anything they wanted with their female slaves, which angered the slave owner's wife.

Female slaves would have to deal with the mistress's wrath. Despite all the bad things that happen to her, Jacobs still manages to empathize with Dr. Norcom's wife and conclude that both women the slave and the slave-owner's wife were victims of this demon system called slavery. Jacobs also criticized the Northern Free States a lot and she saw little difference between the South and the North, the example of public transportation in the South, blacks would have to sit in the back carriage which was filthy, but they didn't have to pay for it, whereas in the North, blacks would still have to sit in the filthy back carriage, but would have to pay a fare for it.

Many Northerners would look down at the South and its barbaric ways with slavery, but then would happily marry off their daughters to a rich Southern family. Jacobs was very angry about this hypocrisy! She briefly describes her experience in England and how she felt free there. I was surprised to read that she never experienced racism in England.

She mentions her gratitude to every person who helped her escape from Dr. Norcom, which include both black and white people. All in all, I think that this book would make an excellent read for high school students.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

They can learn more about slavery from a first-hand account and the developments that occurred during Jacobs' lifetime the Fugitive Slave Act was enacted in They can learn about the complex relationships between the slave owner and the slave, and also between the slaves themselves. The book also deals with gender inequality, which is still a relevant topic for students to discuss. Harriet Jacobs left us with a very important piece of work for us to learn about history.

This book was exhausting, emotionally and spiritually. Let it be an indictment to all those who think owning another human being is acceptable, even marginally. Let it be an indictment to all those who think that owning another human being should enter one's consciousness, even for a milli-second. The greatest censure this book brings is to all those who looked but did not see; who did not want to see: Are doctors of divinity blind, or are they hypocrites?

I suppose some are the one, and some the This book was exhausting, emotionally and spiritually. I suppose some are the one, and some the other; but I think if they felt interest in the poor and the lowly, that they ought to feel, they wouldn't be so easily blinded. A clergyman who goes to the south for the first time, has usually some feeling, however vague, that slavery is wrong. The slaveholder suspects this and plays his game accordingly. The reverend gentleman is asked to invoke a blessing on a table loaded with luxuries. After dinner he walks round the premises, and sees the beautiful groves and flowering vines, and the comfortable huts of favored household slaves.

The southerner invites him to talk to those slaves. He asks me if they want to be free, and they say, "O, no massa. He comes home to publish a "South Side View of Slavery", and to complain of the exaggeration of the abolitionists. He assures people that he has been to the south, and seen slavery for himself; that it is a beautiful, "patriarchal institution"; that the slaves don't want their freedom; that they have hallelujah meetings and other religious privileges.

What does he know of the half-starved wretches toiling from dawn till dark on the plantations? The slaveholder showed him none of these things and the slaves dared not tell of them if he had asked them. All those generations of people who marched past this horror playing before their eyes, and chose instead to avert their gaze. The book is a recrimination against society itself that one "colored woman" chose to live in a small garrett for seven years, no bigger than a contemporary prison cell, rather than submit to the cruelties of slavery.

As Myrlie Evers-Williams writes in her introduction to this edition: Imagine, if you will, the indefatigable spirit of a woman who would choose life in a "coffin", dead to the institution of slavery, but alive in her pursuit of freedom, rather than a "good" life in the hands of her owner. The name of Harriet Jacobs is not one that comes readily to mind when exploring heroism of the nineteenth century -- or any century for that matter. But her actions speak encouragingly to any who have been faced with insurmountable problems with seemingly no way out. If ever there has been an understatement in literature, surely this is it: It speaks with deafening prose; it speaks passionately, and intensely; and even from far beyond the grave, speaks resoundingly.

I well know the value of that bit of paper; but much as I love freedom, I do not like to look upon it. I am deeply grateful to the generous friend who procured it, but I despise the mi The bill of sale is on record, and future generations will learn from it that women were articles of traffic in New York, late in the nineteenth century of the Christian religion. I am deeply grateful to the generous friend who procured it, but I despise the miscreant who demanded payment for what never rightfully belonged to him or his.

Of course it is so, popular creed dictates, but that's not good enough. The introduction mentions more than a century of main white stream male criticism digging in their heels with it is of too poor a quality, so it is not worth reading. It is of too good a quality, so she didn't write it, so it is not worth reading. How much of this is the gatekeeping system of credibility that has favorably viewed slavery for millenia longer than it has denounced it, and how much of it is putting themselves in her place. Slave born, targeted from puberty on, negotiating the self in exchange for lifeless monetary stuffs from maturity on, no law, little power, the barring from the public sphere as befits a woman, the degradation of the human soul as befits a US person of color, and she not only escapes, but works, and writes, and publishes.

When canonizing a work such as this, it is not about lowering the standards, but raising, eyeing every Hawthorne Poe and Twain, estimating who would have triumphed over the same lot in life and lived to authorship accordingly. What is at stake is not the value of literature after the legal system once again breaks wide to let another spark of humanity through, but how much it was worth before, and before, and before, when estimations of quality eyed only the pinnacle of the pyramid and thought it good.

There may be sophistry in this; but the condition of a slave confuses all principles of morality, and, in fact, renders the practice of them impossible. To some existence, to others rhetoric. Rape, slavery, Holocaust, words of a certain coinage that invalidate the pain of millions when used to further an argument, convey a metaphor, offer an explanation from the mouth who never, ever, would have done so had the word's intonation encompassed a segment of their life.

Nothing is sacred, so why don't you sell your children on the suburban market. Nothing is sacred, so why don't you shoot your boss and quit your job for life. Nothing is sacred, and yet everyone knows which subjects posted on the Internet will garner the most death threats from those who will never be called terrorists or threats to national security.

Religion is all very well, but an ethics that views certain years as particular problems solved to satisfaction is the same sort of bad faith that fueled the creation of this edition as a tiny offering of peace. Objectivity's sure convenient when the few're fueled by the cannibalization of many. I observed how careful they all were not to say anything that might wound my feelings.

He tries to force her into a sexual relationship with him when she comes of age. The girl resists his entreaties and maintains her distance. Knowing that Flint will do anything to get his way, as a young woman Linda consents to a relationship with a white neighbor, Mr. Sands, hoping he can protect her from Flint.

As a result of their relations, Sands and Linda have two mixed-race children: Benjamin, often called Benny, and Ellen. Because they were born to a slave mother, they are considered slaves, under the principle of partus sequitur ventrem , which had been part of southern slave law since the 17th century. Linda is ashamed, but hopes this illegitimate relationship will protect her from assault at the hands of Dr. Linda also hopes that Flint would become angry enough to sell her to Sands, but he refuses to do so. Instead, he sends Linda to his son's plantation to be broken in as a field hand. When Linda discovers that Benny and Ellen are also to be sent to the fields, she makes a desperate plan.

Escaping to the North with two small children would be nearly impossible. Unwilling either to submit to Dr. Flint's abuse or abandon her family, she hides in the attic of her grandmother Aunt Martha's cabin. She hopes that Dr. Flint, believing that she has fled to the North, will sell her children rather than risk having them escape as well. Linda is overjoyed when Dr. Flint sells Benny and Ellen to a slave trader who unbeknown to him, secretly represents Sands. Promising to free the children one day, Sands assigns them to live with Aunt Martha.

Linda becomes physically debilitated by being confined to the tiny attic, where she can neither sit nor stand. Her only pleasure is to watch her children through a tiny peephole Mr. Sands marries and is elected as a congressman. When he takes Ellen, his illegitimate child with slave Linda, to Washington, D. Worried that he will eventually sell them, she determines to escape with them to the North.

Flint continues to hunt for her, and leaving the attic is still too risky. After seven years in the attic, Linda finally escapes to the North by boat. Benny remains with Aunt Martha. Linda is dismayed to see Ellen is being treated as a slave, after the institution was abolished in New York.

She fears that Mrs. Hobbs will take Ellen back to the South and put her beyond her mother's reach. Linda finds work as a nursemaid for the Bruces, a family in New York City who treat her very kindly. Flint is still in pursuit, Linda flees to Boston , where she is reunited with her son Benny, who had also escaped.

Flint claims that the sale of Benny and Ellen was illegitimate, and Linda is terrified that he will re-enslave her and her children. After a few years, Mrs. Linda spends some time living with her children in Boston. She spends a year in England caring for Mr. Bruce's daughter, and for the first time in her life enjoys freedom from racial prejudice. When Linda returns to Boston, she sends Ellen to boarding school. Benny moves to California with Linda's brother William, who had also escaped to the North.

Bruce remarries, and Linda takes a position caring for their new baby. Flint dies, but his daughter, Emily, writes to Linda to claim ownership of the fugitive slave. The Fugitive Slave Act of is passed by Congress, making Linda and her children extremely vulnerable to capture and re-enslavement, as it requires cooperation by law enforcement and citizens of free states. Emily Flint and her husband, Mr. Dodge, arrive in New York to capture Linda. When the refugee goes into hiding, the new Mrs. Bruce offers to purchase her freedom.

At first Linda refuses, unwilling to be bought and sold again, and makes plans to follow Benny to California. Bruce buys Linda's freedom from Flint. Linda is grateful to Mrs. Bruce, but expresses disgust at the institution that required such a transaction. Linda notes that she has not yet realized her dream of making a home with her children. The book closes with two testimonials to its accuracy, one from Amy Post , a white abolitionist, and the other from George W.

Lowther, a black anti-slavery writer. Linda Brent — The protagonist, and a pseudonym for Harriet Jacobs. At the start of the story, Linda is unaware of her status as a slave due to her first kind masters, who taught her how to read and write.

by Harriet Jacobs

She faces harassment by her subsequent masters, the Flints. Linda learns along the way how to defend herself against her masters. She uses psychological warfare to avoid the advances of Dr. Jacobs reveals in the beginning of the book that there were aspects of her story that she could not bear to write. She is torn between her desire for personal freedom and responsibility to her family, especially her children Benny and Ellen.

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