Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

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Book Review: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

The book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is one of the most widely read narratives touching on the history of female slavery in America. Harriet Jacobs uses the pseudonym Linda Brent to give what is widely regarded as her autobiography. Born in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813, Harriet Jacobs was the daughter Daniel Jacobs and Delilah who were both slaves (Jacobs 9). During her first six years of life, Jacobs did not know that she was a slave and only knew after the death of her mother which prompted Margaret Horniblow, her mother’s master, to take her up. At the age of 11, Jacobs fell under the control of Dr. James Norcom, the father

The psychological torture that came with being a slave was probably the most troubling aspect of slavery. As highlighted in the book, slaves were denied their basic human rights and end up being treated not as human beings but as assets. The fact that slavery involved selling and buying of slaves ensured that the fate of many African Americans was at the mercy of their masters. With little and at times no freedom, slaves had no choice on who they would marry. Upon having a family, the children of slaves became by default the property of the parents’ masters and would be sold at the will of these masters (Kolchin 44). The poor conditions in which slaves lived present another troubling aspect of slavery. Slaves were made to eat stale food and drink dirty water this put them at risk of developing health complications. Sexual harassment was an equally troubling aspect especially for female slaves. As highlighted by the life of Jacobs, female slaves had a lot of challenges dealing with sexual advances from their

The first half of the book seems to send a strong message to the reader. The section asks why those who understand slavery and its implication fail to act on it. Jacobs seems to partly accuse those who inwardly condemn slavery but outwardly fail to act on the same for the situation in American during the time of the narrative’s authorship. The second part of the book tends to move away from these accusations and focuses on the lost trust among people especially among female slaves. Having being let down time and again by those they trusted, female slaves tended to shun any help. While the book contains a lot of sad incidents, it does provide hope to the enslaved through the triumphs of Jacobs. Despite being a hugely informative, critics of the book have dismissed it as a fictionalized account of slavery. This, however, seems incorrect to me as the incidents described in it confirm the vast literature available on the issue of slavery in America (Bales and Ron 67). It is for this reason that I would recommend the book to any scholar wishing to visit or revisit the issue of slavery in