Analysis Of Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

In 1834 she became a fugitive slave and reaching her freedom. Linda exposed her qualities by showing determination and leadership and becoming the first female to published a Narrative about her life being a being a female slave in North Carolina. Jacobs wrote others and her own story, this narrative was intend to audience like the women from the North, so they

Knowing that in this time in history that not even white women were respected on the same level as men, how much greater then were women of color disrespected? Though she used a fake name—she still identified as an African American woman, which proves that not just any book would be published at the time if it were not of some truth. Jacobs’ life, a life of physical slavery, shows the parallels to the bondage humans have in

Harriet A. Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina in 1813 and became a fugitive in the 1830s. She recorded her triumphant struggle for freedom in an autobiography that was published pseudonymously in 1861. As Linda Brent, the book 's heroine and narrator, Jacobs recounts the history of her family: a remarkable grandmother who hid her from her master for seven years: a brother who escaped and spoke out for abolition; her two children, whom she rescued and sent north. She recalls the degradation of slavery and the special sexual oppression she found as a slave woman: the master who was determined to make her his concubine. With Frederick Douglass 's account of his life, it is one of the two archetypes in the genre of the slave

For example, she used personal experiences and historical facts in the story to introduce the audience to slavery. In chapter 8, she goes into telling the stories of how the southern slave owners mistook the stories of the north. It is said that in the north, slaves loved working for their masters and being property due to how "kindly" they were treated. Linda wrote, "She had never thought of such a thing as wishing to go back to slavery," mocking the lies spread by the northerners (chapter 8). During slavery times, southerners would repeatedly lie to trick slaves into thinking they were fortunate to be in their current circumstances.

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.

In Linda’s case, it is her devotion to Dr. Flint even through all of his humiliating. When Linda starts sleeping with Mr. Sands, becoming pregnant, it upsets Dr. Flint who he himself is waiting for his chance to claim his prize. Dr. Flint pushes Linda down the stairs, harms her son, and cuts all of her hair off assuming to make her feel less of a woman. Linda was forced to be who Dr. Flint wanted her to be because he held ‘financial responsibility’ over her and her children with Mr. Sands. Linda went to Mr. Sands for her own reasoning (hope of being purchased); however, when she was sold off and he brought their children together, he broke his promise to set them free.

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

Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Although she wrote under the pseudonym Linda Brent, Harriet Ann Jacobs effectively conveyed her supportive opinions on the abolition of slavery in her very raw, personal narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by painting a vivid picture of the heartbreaking circumstances that not only she faced as an escaped slave but of the many others who were dehumanized for years without the opportunity of creating a better life. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is important because Jacobs was essentially the first female to publish an extensive narrative of her accounts throughout her time as a slave. One chapter in particular, “The Loophole of Retreat,” sets the scene in a way that exemplifies

In the autobiography, Incidents of the Life of the Slave Girl (1861), written by Harriet Ann Jacobs relates to readers when telling her experience throughout the course of her life.  After the death of her kindhearted, and loving mistress it was then that Jacobs finally came to a haunting realization that her life will begin astray.   In addition, while consuming this heartbreaking information at a young age, it was also when she knew she was a slave.  

When speaking out against the horrors of slavery, Abraham Lincoln once proclaims, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves”. Unfortunately, many people in the world, especially the United States during the 1800s, did not agree with this statement. Fitz Hugh and many others during that time period, believed that slavery is good for everyone involved, arguing that slave masters are fatherly to their slaves. Harriet Jacobs challenges the multitude of arguments that claim slavery is beneficial and moral in her auto biography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The reader follows Harriet through her journey of surviving slavery while enduring a sexually abusive master, hiding in an attic for seven years, and finally escaping

Harriet Jacobs in her book Incidents In the Life of a slave girl relates to her readers her experience as a slave in the South. She believed that “only by experience can any one realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that of abominations” (Preface 3). The purpose of her story was to show a different angle of slavery and the struggle she faced trying to free herself along with her children. The story started as her being a child “born into slavery” and how her life changed as she was faced with the deaths of both her father and mistress, which now meant she would be sold to the family of Dr. Flint. Throughout the books Linda faces many trials and tribulations but she continuously stands her ground to control herself regardless of being a slave,

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

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.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs is a moving, agonizing story about both struggles and liberation. Harriet went through a great deal in her life within the shackles of slavery, but her determination and strong will pushed her forward to a positive outcome. From a young age Harriet knew she wanted to be free, and when her master, Dr. Flint, made uncomfortable advances on her, she wanted to make this dream a reality. She had two children with a wealthy white man in the area because she believed it would push Dr. Flint to sell her, but it did not work. She eventually ran away and lived in hiding underneath her grandmother’s house for seven years.