Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

This passage from Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, functions as a preface or disclaimer to Jacobs’ account of her relationship with Mr. Sands, a white man interested in her. Here, and in the subsequent passages, Jacobs’ purpose is twofold: to plead for her readers’ understanding, and to take ownership of her actions.

Jacobs is sure to make it clear that she entered into this relationship with “deliberate calculation” (69). That is to say, for Jacobs the decision wasn’t a matter of “compulsion from a master” nor was it the result of “ignorance or thoughtlessness,” (69) as although she was young, growing up under slavery already stole her innocence “concerning the evils of the world” (69). Rather, the decision was just that: a

Given the popularity of the sentimental novel at the time, Jacobs purposely writes in such a way to get her points across in terms her readership is familiar with. Throughout the novel, she writes in a melodramatic style, pleading directly to the reader with addresses such as “O, you happy free women” (18) or “Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader!” (71). Moreover, Jacobs posits slavery (and its champions) as monstrous, gothic villains that rip apart families and deprive slaves of their humanity. This is perhaps most evidence in the case of her slave owner, Dr. Flint. Dr. Flint is presented as a monstrous figure willing to go to great lengths to maintain Linda’s suffering:

“Your new paramour came to me, and offered to buy you; but you may be assured you will not succeed. You are mine; and you shall be mine for life. There lives no human being that can take you out of slavery. I would have done it; but you rejected my kind offer” (104).

Here, not only is Dr. Flint presented as unreasonable, but simply villainous. There is a sense he refuses to sell her for the sake of his own pride, infuriated by even the notion that she deserves to be treated as a person. Similarly, his drawn out attempts to find her once she finally escapes further mimics a heroine versus villain dynamic of a sentimental novel. By describing him as a gothic villain, Jacobs is able to appeal

Each line is different in length, and each line has different syntax in the same way the staircase “had tacks in it, / And splinters, / And boards torn up, / And places with no carpet on the floor –/ Bare.” (lines 3-7). Some lines end with a period, some a comma or ellipses, and still others lack any guidance at all as to how the syntax goes at all [“But all the time” (line 8)]. In this way, Hughes emphasizes that although life is to be taken in strides, that does not mean each “step” of your life will be easy, nor does it mean every step will be hard with “splinters” (line 4)– some will simply be “bare” (line 7). Moreover, some steps in life will be shorter (as in duration of time) in the same way some of the lines are longer than others. Similarly, some steps or periods of life might be narrower in the sense of having less room for keeping ahold of your footing, meaning there is less room to maneuver and a greater chance of falling. By varying the lengths of his lines, Hughes is able to add real depth and emphasis to the mother’s