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Harriet Jacobs

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At this point to the average American, it is rightfully believed that slavery or human trafficking is an abomination. However, most of us could never truly empathize with a slave or former slave, let alone a female slave. The short piece on page 27 of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a vastly important look into the mind of Harriet Jacobs, because not only did it give us insight on how it felt to be a young, female slave, but she also provided a voice to the voiceless.
The focus of this excerpt from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an African-American woman that was born into slavery, named Harriet Jacobs. According to Harriet, the protagonist of the story, she had just turned fifteen years old and describes this period in …show more content…

Because rumors swirled through town about her master, this man showed a great amount of sympathy for Harriet and often wrote letters to her. As Harriet was a young slave, she had never felt the genuine admiration of a member of the opposite sex and felt greatly flattered by this. Eventually, an idea popped into her mind, she would lay with this man and become an expectant mother. After all, she thought the ability to choose her own lover was much better than being forced to lay with someone else. After the deed was done, she was filled with a great amount of guilt and embarrassment, especially considering how often her family would talk her up to others about her high morality. However, even with all the guilt that was felt, if given the chance, she would not take anything back. To Harriet, anything was better than being in a “living hell”, which she said is what living in the house would be. Ultimately, when it came to tell Dr. Flint what happened, the joy she felt was short lived and in the end the feeling of remorse and humiliation overcame the

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