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Harriet Jacob's Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

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“By degrees, a more tender feeling crept into my heart. He was an educated and eloquent gentleman; too eloquent, alas, for the poor slave girl who trusted in him.” In the early 1830’s, as a slave, you did what you were told and you weren’t supposed to ask questions or say no. That is just how things were back then and if you did otherwise you were beaten and punished for it by a white man. “Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in Edenton, North Carolina, in 1813. The events described in this passage took place around 1830. Jacob’s life was filled with drama. Unrelenting sexual exploitation drive her into hiding. For seven years, a black family sheltered her in a tiny crawl space of their home until Harriet was able to escape New York City in 1842” (pg. 203, Jacobs). In the article “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” Jacobs focuses on how having power gave her a voice to stand up against the whites versus other slaves decided to allow the slavery, rape/sexual contents, and physical/psychological abuse. …show more content…

Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another.” She explains how it feels to be a slave and how you wouldn’t know what it felt like to be a slave, unless you have been a slave before. “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own,” (Number 4, Sparknotes). In this quote it’s talking about how for men slavery was bad but for women it was more harsh and cruel then what was happening to them. In addition slavery was a piece of her life that made her do what was necessary to

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