Harriet Jacob's Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

In the autobiography, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Harriet Jacobs is able to tell her story and show the pain of bondage she endured. Jacobs lived from 1813-1897, and all she ever knew was the life of a slave. It is her story, even though she uses a pseudonym, Linda Brent, in order to protect her identity. Her real name is later discovered by scholars, and she is then given the credit for her writing. The book was published in 1861, after fleeing north to New York.

Although she did not receive any physical punishment by her master, she lived in a tight-knit community and was aware of the conditions of other slaves who received brutal punishments. For example, Jacobs notes that “every where men, women, and children were whipped till the blood stood in puddles at their feet.” (page 56). Female slaves lived in fear that they would be raped by their masters. Jacobs’ master, Dr. Flint, often made relentless sexual advances at her, and justified his behavior by saying that she was “made for his use.”

Rather than immediately putting an end to slavery, Northern states took a gradual approach towards abolition. This method allowed for the steady growth in the population of free blacks, which the majority of Northerners generally accepted at the time. In the book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs described her life as a slave in the early 1800s and her ultimate goal to escape to New York. She primarily focused on the abuses of slavery and the slave’s struggle for self-definition. Her story not only impacted the lives of other female slaves when it was published in 1861, but it also affected Northern women who were dedicated to the Cult of Domesticity.

Harriet Jacobs, or Linda Brent as she liked to be called, was born into slavery in North Carolina in 1813. She grew up really happy, unaware of her status of being a slave. When she was 6 years old, her mother died and since then she learnt of her status of being a slave (Jacobs, 9). She had a very hardworking father who was also a slave and a younger brother called William, whom she loved so much. Her maternal grandmother helped to raise her and William.

However she would realize her husband would sleep with and impregnate his slaves. The wife’s of the slave owners would be very revengeful and jealous, due to the fact that their husbands would have kids with his slaves and see her kids as well as the slave women’s kids in the same household. . These women lived a fake, sad and miserable life due to the fact that their husband’s would be unfaithful with his slaves. In the passage Harriet states that women would be ashamed and not approve of what their husbands where doing, saying “‘He not only thinks it no disgrace to be the father of those little niggers, but he is not ashamed to call himself their master. I declare, such things ought not to be tolerated in any decent society!’”.

In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs, writing under the pseudonym Linda Brent, writes autobiographically of the painful and tragic struggles faced by her and her family as slaves in the South during the 19th century. As Brent depicts the various obstacles and struggles she endured in her journey to freedom she shows how “slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women” by giving insight to the sexual abuse female slaves were subject to and the aftermath of this sexual abuse. In the following review of Brent’s work, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, I will include a summary of the book’s contents along with an analysis of its major argument and purpose to give understanding to the atrocities face by

Harriet Ann Jacob's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an autobiography by Jacobs that describes her life under the pseudonym Linda Brent, in which she describes her journey from slavery to being a free woman. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was first published in 1861 during the Civil War and explained the painful experiences she had to undergo as an enslaved person. Jacobs had to undergo countless hardships during her duration enslaved to become free. Jacobs' autobiography is an important book that brings to light the first-person experiences that resulted from slavery and the risks enslaved people such as Jacobs put themselves through to escape and become free. Throughout Jacobs' incidents in Incidents in the Life of a Slave

By telling this story, Harriet mocks the claim that slave owners are like fathers. She shows they do not protect their slaves, and slave masters are the problem. Harassing a girl fourteen years old to have sex, is nowhere close to father like; it is barely even

Equivocating the “Slave” In order to properly understand the capacity of being able to live a life of constant stress and then articulate the life’s story in a fashion that grasps more than the intended audience, when it comes stories being told regarding chattel slavery, one needs to closely read to thoroughly examine the literature of the overall experience. Harriet Jacobs, also published as Linda Brandt, was a daughter, former chattel property/slave, permanent mother/granddaughter, and abolitionist turned profound author. In her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), Jacobs pleaded with her targeted Northern colonized female audience in a chance to aide in the severe inhumane predicaments that occupied the Southern

She had lived her first years as happy child, but when her mother died, Harriet Jacobs was sent to her mother’s master, Margaret Hornblow, who taught her to read, write, and sew. Harriet’s master Margaret, had always shown love and affection to Harriet, which she did not realize her life as a born slave girl. In the year 1825, Harriet’s master Margaret had passed

Unlike many blacks Harriet master taught her how to read and write. She then became the first women to write a slave narrative. At a very young age her master was constantly after her, he would whisper fouled thing in her ears as she described, although he did not force himself into her he wanted to control her and would always remind her that she was is and one day she would submit to his demands. Harriet described a black girl beauty as a burden a curse because the masters would be after them and from that time they didn’t consider it as rape. Even in the court of the law the judges would say there is no such thing as the rape of a black woman.

Harriet Ann Jacobs is the first Afro-American female writer to publish the detailed autobiography about the slavery, freedom and family ties. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent to keep the identity in secret. In the narrative, Jacobs appears as a strong and independent woman, who is not afraid to fight for her rights. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was published in 1961, but was unveiled almost 10 years later due to the different slave narrative structure. Frequently, the slave narratives were written by men where they fight against the slavery through literacy by showing their education.

1315334 Harriet Jacobs was born a slave. Until the age of six she had a "normal" childhood. In her book From Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), she shares her experiences of what it was like to be a slave. Jacobs says herself she created this piece of writing because, " I want to add my testimony to that of abler pens to convince the people of the Free States what Slavery really is. Only by experience can any one realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that pit of abominations.

Harriet Jacobs was an African American woman who wrote incidents in the life of a slave girl in order to discuss her experiences in slavery as a woman. She wanted to unveil the truth about the life of a slave and share her knowledge among white southerners and northerners of slavery. As a slave woman and a runaway, Harriet Jacobs had suffered emotionally, physically, and mentally in the institution of slavery. However, she had suffered far more psychological abuse than physical abuse due to her life as a slave, sexual harassment from her slave master, and the constant fear of being found as a runaway. All these experiences led to the truth of what slavery really was.

Alizae lounnarath Prof. Troy HIST 1301 12/1/14 Harriet Jacobs Final Paper Assignment Harriet Jacobs was a very important African American women during the hard times of slavery. Harriet was an example of how African American women were treated. Although she was tough and went through a long journey she survived and accomplished her goal of gaining freedom for herself and her family. Harriet was also an author who wrote a popular book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl which told her personal story including all the barriers in her life so that people could be aware of the cruel treatments and the lifestyle some of the helpless enslaved women had to go through during the 1800-1900’s.