Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Literary Touchstone Classic | Harriet Jacobs

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Literary Touchstone Classic | Harriet Jacobs | Fascinating story

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Incidents in the L...

	Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Literary Touchstone Classic Harriet Jacobs Prestwick House, Inc., 2006 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic includes a glossary and reader's notes to help the modern reader appreciate Jacobs' perspectives and language. DRIVEN BY THE HORRORS of slavery and fear of a predatory master, Harriet Jacobs, a young black woman, makes the fateful, life-altering decision to escape. Long thought to be the work of a white writer, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the captivating and terrifying story of Jacobs' daily life on a plantation in North Carolina, her seven years of hiding, and her ultimate triumph. Jacobs wrote her autobiography in 1861, under a pseudonym to protect the lives of the friends and family she left behind, and the work had been essentially lost until the mid-twentieth century. Now recognized as a classic, unflinching portrait of slave life, Incidents exposes slavery on a level comparable only to that of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

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Rare first hand account of slavery

Harriet Jacobs book Life of a Slave Girl is a unique piece of slave literature directly from the pen of an articulate slave. One gets a sense of the poignant way she can retell the story of her enslavement from a passage she writes in the preface of her book.

". . . I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a
realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South,
still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse.
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."

Her story raises emotions of sentiment for a mother struggling to hold her family together, and it shines a light on the cruelties of slavery. The political sentiment at the time among the elites in the northern states was increasingly becoming antislavery. The political aspect of Jacob's writing is not that of the highly stylized writings of famous abolitionists or of eminent blacks such as Frederick Douglass using reason and religion to condemn slavery. Jacob's writing is visceral and down to earth. Her powerful argument against slavery pulls at the heartstrings of any sympathetic decent human being. In essence, Jacob's story is one that resonates with people of all socio-economic backgrounds. It is no mystery why the hearts and minds of people are stirred to action after one reads Jacob's disturbing accounts of sexual depravity, mental anguish, and the destruction of the family unit, that she endured as a slave. Her first person narrative account is what makes her book such a strong force of political sentiment in the genre of slave narrative. Since there were so few slave narratives in circulation at the time, it was easy for Jacob's book to engender such strong political sentimentality.

Jacob's ability to arouse aesthetic sentimentality in her audience was a bit tricky, because of the sexual decisions she had to make in her life. Deciding to have an elicit sexual relationship with an unmarried white neighbor to escape the depraved advances of her owner could be construed as Jacob's being more interested in autonomy and less interested in chastity. Jacob has made it clear to her audience that it was her station in life that caused her to make what her white readers would consider an unconventional choice. Jacob's plight as a slave caused her to choose freedom over trying to protect her chastity more strenuously. Since slavery took away almost all of her freedom and individuality, she was willing to trade her chastity for the freedom of choice. Jacob's virginity was one of the few things she possessed that she was able to withhold from her owner. After going into detail for why she made her choice she still felt it was necessary to apologize to her "Victoria" audience for her decision. This act on her part was truly one of the few choices she had the ability to make while in slavery's bondage. Thus, once Jacob's white audience understood the dreadfully marginal position she occupied in society, most of them would feel compassion for her. This would make her audience more inclined to accept the choice she felt was necessary to make for her own well-being. Jacob's decision over who she would give her sexual being to, was he only way of holding onto some semblance of individuality.

This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and literature.

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Fascinating story

Having moved to the US I wanted to read more of its history and where better to start than the slave trade. What a wonderful book; whilst the text is written in an amazingly un-emotional language, you not only feel this author's pain with what she had to endure but also the happiness that various events in her life brings. She explains through her personal story the way slave families could be split up but also had, on occasions, the opportunity to buy their freedom and the enormous difference in attitude of the slave owners, from the absolutely brutal to the caring and concerned. An excellent read.

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A reflection on personal history

In reading the accounts of Harriet Jacobs the abuse and brutality of a female slave is vividly brought home. Harriet's courage and indomnable spirit is reflective of that of many of the slaves in early America. This story is particularly personal because my Great-great grandfather James Norcom was the infamous Dr. Flint. I am not proud of what he did or stood for and am particularly pleased that books such as this not only tell the story of slavery from the slaves point of view but detail the mindset of the slave owner. A good read although a bit repetitious in the beginning.

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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

An excellent book for high school students, this book provides an indepth look at the emotional turmoil of a young slave girl through her growth to motherhood and finally to freedom.

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