Incidents in the life of a slave girl : written by herself

Description

Writing under the name Linda Brent, Harriet Jacobs recounts her life as an enslaved woman, mother, and fugitive struggling to secure freedom for herself and her children. She documents the sexual persecution she endured from an enslaver and the constant threat that her children could be sold away. Escape does not immediately bring safety: for seven years, Jacobs hides in a cramped garret attached to her grandmother’s home, enduring severe confinement while remaining close enough to watch over her family. Her account joins intimate experience to an explicit appeal for abolition, addressing white Northern women whose domestic ideals allowed them to ignore slavery’s violence. The memoir shows how enslavement invaded motherhood, sexuality, family bonds, and private conscience as thoroughly as it controlled labor and movement.

Themes