Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl Essay

“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” is a slave narrative written from a woman’s perspective by Harriet Jacobs. She provided a rare glimpse into the life of women enslaved during the nineteenth century. While Jacobs’s experiences were atypical of most enslaved persons, she provided an insightful perspective of slavery, motherhood, women’s duties and expectations. Jacobs’s tale debuted under the pen name of Linda Brent but later was attributed to her. The narrative portrays the injustice of slavery, but also highlighted the predicament of all women. Black and white women alike lived under a system of patriarchal tyranny and persecution. Women in the South and North had shared common experiences during the nineteenth century. Embedded within “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” are illustrations showcasing these distinct experiences. Although the encounters were different in many veins they share the common threads of oppression and domination. In “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” Jacobs lent her distinct voice to emphasize the differences in race, class and gender. Historian Deborah Gray White explains the societal implications of the patriarchal system in place in her book entitled Ain’t I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South.

“They were slaves because they were black, and even more than sex, color was the absolute

Jacobs’s own words tell us her feelings of betrayal. She says “But, alas! We all know that the memory of a faithful slave does not avail much to save her children from the auction block”(Jacobs 6). Jacobs’s fear came true as she was left to a niece of her former mistress, a five-year-old child. Societal norms of the male - dominated world dictated that the former mistress would bequeath her property and slaves to her family. In an article by Timothy Crumin entitled “Women and the Law in the Early Nineteenth Century” he