Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs

Sanne Bergh
Eng48A
Journal for Jacobs
Oct. 20, 2011

Author Quote
"With me the lamp of hope had gone out. The dream of my girlhood was over. I felt lonely and desolate" (1815).

Internet Quote
"Death is better than slavery." -- Harriet Jacobs

Brief Summary
A slave struggles and agonizes with the concept of being considered a piece of property as opposed to a human being. Humanity is one of the ideas that are associated with being a free individual. Slavery chains both the spirit and the body. The author's girlhood is connoted with innocence, with the idea and hope that anything is possible-- with slavery, everything that is associated with happiness has vanished.

Your Idea/Reactions/Responses to the Author's Ideas
Jacobs depicts a life that cannot be fictionalized. Even thought the main character's name is Linda, it appears to be a pseudonym. The protagonist is forced to be desensitized to the pleasures of love, affection and any human emotion. It seems she is not allowed to feel these things. When she was a child, her parents exposed her to the possibilities of life beyond the chains of slavery. They had her understand the pleasures of humanity, literacy and love in her early childhood. Everything was then snatched from her when she was sold and purchased as a piece of merchandise. Despite this, she was not broken and continued to pursue freedom. To be a slave, in my opinion, takes a great deal of psychological power. To go on with a broken spirit is the same as being emotionally dead. I believe that with Linda's rebellious spirit, it took tremendous amounts strength to endure the amount of physical and emotional abuse that she had received. Additionally, the fact that she is a woman and has opinions that are completely disregarded and ignored makes the story that much more traumatic. She is forced into situations that no one could dream of. The black woman of the 19th century were some of the most tortured beings in American history. Women had no rights, blacks had no rights, Jacobs had no rights. With no rights, there is no humanity, there is no say, there is nothing. Jacobs had been degenerated into a mere physical object that was used as a material tool. In her case, sensitivity was a luxury.