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

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The book Incidents in the life of a slave girl written by herself, Harriet Jacobs, we follow her life as a slave in North Carolina during the Antebellum period of the United States before the Civil War. This book describes Harriet’s life as a slave in detail, something we would not usually get from a book around this time. Some important insights we get from this book are, instability of life, difficulty to escape slavery, family life, and the struggles of female slaves. Harriet Jacobs was born in Edenton, North Carolina, in 1813. The first child of Delilah Horniblow and Elijah Jacobs. She had a happy childhood not knowing she was a slave until she was 6, after he mother died. After her mother's death, Harriet becomes the slave of her mother's …show more content…

Another instance of uncertainty in slaves’ lives is Slave’s New Years Day, also know as Hiring-Day. Harriet recalls how all hired slaves were expected to leave their families behind and leave the plantation with their new masters on January 2 and return when their ‘contract’ ran out. “It is easy to find out, on that day, who clothes and feeds his slaves well; for he is surrounded by a crowd, begging, ‘Please, Massa, hire me this year. I will work very hard, Massa’” (Jacobs 40) As shown from the story, even if you had a good master, you could still be sold, or they could even die, causing you to be someone else’s …show more content…

Slaves were lied to about the north and were told of how hard it was to make to to the free states. Many slaves believed lies told to them, as they had no opposite side to hear from. “They [Slave Masters] tell their slaves of the runaways they have seen, and describe them to be in the most deplorable condition.” (Jacobs 67) Harriet specifically recalls how a slave owner had told her about one of her runaway friends in New York. He had claimed that she was literally starving to death and had asked to be taken back to her owner, while the whole time being in New York having no thoughts of ever returning to

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