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

Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is a perfect sentimental narrative. Sentimental lecture became popular by women in the 1850s. Sentimental themes shown in Jacobs’s work include the sacred bonds, separation, love, death, heartbreak, sacrifice, and emotional feelings and sympathy throughout the narrative. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs writes an account of what slavery was like for her, a female slave.
At the beginning of the narrative Jacobs starts by revealing her happy innocent childhood of six years with her mother and father, unaware of the fact that she “was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them at any moment” (922). Unfortunately, her mother died and she was sent to live with a new master in her

youth. This master took care of her and taught her to sew, but with time the caring master died, leaving her to another new master Dr. Flint. Jacobs reveals, “the memory of a faithful slave does not avail much to save her children from the auction block” (923). In this quote Jacobs is speaking of her faithful and loving mother’s attempt to protect her children. Jacobs mother had been promised that her children would be kept safe and protected by her master; however, due to the evils of slavery her mother’s master did not uphold her promise, sending Jacobs to live with the corrupt Dr. Flint. In the first chapter Jacobs shows her innocence as a child being ripped away from her by slavery.
In the beginning of chapter seven, Jacobs wonders why a slave is to fall in love when it is only to be ripped away by the “hand of death” (924).

Jacobs recalls later the chapter the values of her mistress. She writes, “slaves had no right to any family ties of their own; that they were created merely to wait upon the family of the mistress” (925). Due to Jacobs being a slave, she realizes that she will never be able to truly be the domestic and maternal figure she wishes to be. After Jacobs reveals this truth about slavery she then writes about the painful separation from her first lover due to slavery. Jacobs wrote that she fell in love with a free young colored carpenter who she has known since her innocent childhood. The carpenter offered to buy her freedom leaving Jacobs very excited about her new future. However, due to the down falls of slavery, Jacobs soon realizes that the “hateful man who claimed a right to rule me, body and soul” (925) would never allow her to leave him so easily. When Dr. Flint is confronted with this news he retaliates against Jacobs striking her for the first time. This leaves Jacobs seeing the true violence and oppression of slavery. She writes that, “ for [the free man’s] sake, I felt that I ought not to link his fate with my own unhappy destiny” (928). With this newfound knowledge Jacobs pleads for him to leave and to never come back. Throughout this chapter Jacobs showed what it was like for her, as a slave, to love and experience

sacrifices and heartbreak.
In chapter ten, Jacobs reveals the sexual pursuit of Dr. Flint that she is tortured with daily. The chapter begins with Dr. Flint building her a small house so he can “make a lady out of [her]” (928). Jacobs “vowed before her Marker that [she] would never enter it. [She] had rather toil on the plantation from dawn till dark; [she] had rather live and die in jail, than drag on, from day to day, through such a living death” (928-929) From this quote we can clearly see the disgust Jacobs has for Dr. Flint and the submission he demands of her. For this, Jacobs was forced to come up with a plan. Jacobs pleads with her readers not to judge her based on her unchristian decisions, “I was struggling alone in the powerful grasp of the demon slavery” (929). Jacobs then reveals Mr. Sands a white man, that she has fallen in love with. In order to not live in the small house Dr. Flint has built for his own pleasure, Jacobs becomes pregnant by Mr. Sands. Jacobs hoped that this news would enrage Dr. Flint and he would allow Mr. Sands to buy her and her children. She knew that a free man would support and care for her children, unlike her slave master. Jacobs is ashamed by her choice and apologizes to her readers for compromising her purity and Christian values. She states, “I feel that the slave woman ought not to be judged by the same standard as others” (930). By this quote, Jacobs is exposing that free women were able to choice their own path while a slave was at the mercy of their owner. To add to Jacobs’s heartbreak she had to confess her sins to her grandmother, the last maternal figure she had. Her grandmother become so enraged and heartbroken that she casted Jacobs out of her home. Leaving Jacobs heartbroken and with thoughts of death. Within this chapter we were able to see the true oppression and heartbreak of slavery.
In chapter fourteen, Jacobs is still being shunned from her master’s house due to the fact that Dr.

Flints “wife vowed, by all that was good and great, she would kill [her] if [she] came back” (932). Jacobs she knew this to be true due to her mistress’s jealous tendencies of her. Jacobs has finally given birth to her first child but still feels humiliated about the reason. Jacobs writes, “ I shed bitter tears that I was no longer worthy of being respected by the good and pure” (932). Jacobs is remembering the “poisonous grasp’ of slavery has taken away her purity and Christian values. After her master threatens to take her child away Jacobs is reminded what it’s like for a mother and her slave children with no rights. Soon Jacobs is pregnant again and Dr. Flint becomes so enraged, “he cut every hair close to [her] head” and “he struck [her]” (932). This shows Dr. Flint taking away her of her feminine qualities and also her control. He wanted her to know that she is the slave and he is the master, that he has complete control over her. Jacobs soon finds out that her next child is a girl. Jacobs writes, “slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women” (933). Women have their purity, Christianity, bonds with their children, and domesticity that men do not have to worry about. Jacobs only wants what’s best for her child but by “the weight of slavery’s chain” that is simply impossible

(934).
In chapter twenty-one Jacobs makes the readers have sympathy and emotional feelings for her sacrifice and misery. She writes about the months she has been in a crawlspace hiding from her horrible master, Dr. Flint. She describes the crawlspace in her grandmother’s shed as stifling with total darkness and with no way to turn. Only at night was she able to talk and eat for the fear of being caught. Jacobs writes, “but I was not comfortless. I heard the voices of my children. There was joy and there was sadness in the sound” (934). Jacobs longed to see and speak to her children but for their safety they could not know that she was there. This shows a great sacrifice as a mother. After she makes a peephole, she watches her children grow and laugh. Her children wonder where she is and soon Dr. Flint leaves to go in search of her.
In the final chapter, Free at Last, Jacobs has escaped to the North in hopes of obtaining her freedom. Jacobs is terrified that she will be returned to the South due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. While Jacobs is still in hiding her grandmother wrote her a note stating that Dr. Flint had died. Jacobs feels no sympathy for the man and is quickly reminded that, “I never should be free so long as a child of his survives” (937). Now living in fear, for herself and her children, Jacobs new owners Mr. and Mrs. Dodge are in search of them. Her new owners could not afford to lose a valuable slave. Jacobs confides in her friend, Mrs. Bruce, that she has been “chased during half [her] life and it seemed as if the chase was never to end” (939). Jacobs is aware that her new owners only want to sale Jacobs and the children for money. Her son is away while her daughter is on vacation of her house. Jacobs realizes the fear that her masters might find her daughter and her away. Jacobs writes, “I thought of what I had suffered in slavery at her age, and my heart was like a tiger’s when a hunter tries to seize her young” (939). This quote shows the true devotion of a mother and her children. Jacobs is willing to do anything possible to not have her children taken away from her. Seeing Jacobs’s sacrifices and struggles Mrs. Bruce offers to buy her and her children. Jacobs writes, “the more my mind had become enlightened, the more difficult it was for me to consider myself an article of property; and to pay money to those who had so grievously oppressed me seemed like taking from my sufferings the glory of the triumph” (940). Jacobs could not fathom how people could see her as a piece of property when she is only but a different skin tone from her master. How could you reward someone with money when they have only caused misery, death, and sorrows in your life? By rewarding them with money you are rewarding them for my sufferings! Without her knowledge, Jacobs learns that Mrs. Bruce has bought her freedom. Jacobs wrote, “My relatives had been foiled in all their efforts, but God had raised me up a friend among strangers, who had bestowed on me the precious long desired boon” (941). After her father and grandmother’s attempts to buy Jacobs freedom, Mrs. Bruce, a friend has finally succeeded. Through all the trials and tribulations Jacobs has been through a friend has saved her and her children and she is truly thankful to God. At the end of the narrative Jacobs writes, “Readers, my story ends with freedom; not in the usual way, with marriage. I and my children are now free! We are as free from the power of slaveholders as are the white people of the north… The dream of my life is not yet realized. I do not sit with my children in a home of my own” (941). Jacobs is excited to be free with her children with no worries; however she wishes to obtain the ultimate goal, a home. With a home Jacobs could truly be the domestic and maternal mother she hopped to be. Finally in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs has captured how slavery has dishonored and oppressed women. She also has accomplished writing the perfect sentimental narrative.