Incidents in the life of a slave girl

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a book written by Harriet Jacobs about the hardships she encountered during slavery. The book begins in a small Southern city during the 1820s where Harriet—under the name of Linda Brent in this book—was born under the iron chains of slavery, though she didn’t feel them until later in life. Her childhood was spent under kind masters and she was taught how to read and write, but the death of her last benevolent master proved to change things for the worst. She then became a slave of the Flint household, where she became a favorite of the married master of the house, Dr. Flint or Dr. James Norcom, when she reached a proper age. She was fairly rebellious for a slave and refused to be subjected to the humiliation of being sexually abused by her master. She decided to have an affair with an unmarried white man, Mr. Sands or Samuel Tredwell Sawyer (a future congressman), using the liberal freedom she received from her master. Harriet ended up having two of Mr. Sands’ children who were precious to her and were always at the heart of her plans later in life. She ends up running away after several years and the rest of the book revolves around her successful daring plans and sacrifices to make her children and herself free with many twists and turns upon the way.
This piece of literature occurs between the 1820’s and 1840’s in the antebellum years preceding the Civil War, primarily in the Southern states, but it also takes place in New York City and Boston for a little while and Harriet even recounts of some time she spent in England as well. During this time period slavery was a major institution in the Southern states and segregation was prominent everywhere in the Northern states....

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...lowed me to step into the early 1800's of America and get a good, solid grip of what a brave woman went through to secure the freedom of her children. I was able to connect with Harriet Jacobs and her life as she was an incredibly venerable woman with a good heart and a bit of a stubborn streak that a lot of people could relate to in one way or another. This book definitely made a large impact on me and I feel like I will carry a majority of it with me for quite a while, in particular the seven years that Jacobs spent in an cramped "attic" in a shed. She was so close to her children, yet wasn't able to do anything for them for all those years except remain quiet and wait for the time to take action so she could keep them safe. This book has maintained the part of an American classic for many reasons and it was an absolute wonderful and enlightening book to read.