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Summary Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs

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1315334 Harriet Jacobs was born a slave. Until the age of six she had a "normal" childhood. In her book From Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), she shares her experiences of what it was like to be a slave. Jacobs says herself she created this piece of writing because, " I want to add my testimony to that of abler pens to convince the people of the Free States what Slavery really is. Only by experience can any one realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that pit of abominations. May the blessing of God rest on this imperfect effort in behalf of my persecuted people" (Pg. 847). She begins her testimony talking about her family. She lived with her parents, Jacobs describes her father being a highly intelligent loving man. He worked …show more content…

Unfortunately for Harriet at the same age she realized she was someones property, her mother died. According to North Carolina Historic Sites (2011), " When her mother died, she fell under Horniblow's direct charge, learning to sew well as read and write. It wasn't until the death of her mistress in 1825 that she experienced the harsher realities of slavery" (Sites, 2). The harsh realities that Harriet faced were all to common. After the death of her father she was sold to a man named Dr. James Norcom. Jacobs would be working for Norcom's young daughter. Harriet didn't understand that, caring for his daughter would be the only thing she would be doing because she was young and naive. She says ,"But I now entered on my fifteenth year- a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl. My master began to whisper foul words in my ear. Young as I was, I could not remain ignorant of their import. This is when Dr. Norcom started to have sexual relations with Jacobs, a young child lost her innocence and sadly this happened way to frequently. Years later, Harriet births two children and decides to run away. One dark night, Jacobs makes a run for her

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