Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Harriet Jacobs)
Introduction
This book is an autobiography about the author Harriet Jacobswho was both a mother and a runaway slave. She was born into slavery in the year 1913 and was able to acquire her freedom in the year 1851.The autobiography primarily emphasizes the author’s escape to freedom hand in hand with social slavery issues and gender (Jacobs).The story began with the author’s childhood when she was very happy as she claimed, “Those were happy days-to happy to last,” (Jacobs, 14-15). When she is eleven years of age, she is moved to the house of The Flints (Dr. and Mrs. Flint), where she is initiated into the inhuman slavery world.Jacob’s father dies, and her grandmother is left to take care of her. When she turns 15 years of age, Dr. Flint starts sexually chasing after her, and to get away from this situation; Jacobs has a relationship with Mr. Sands, a lawyer. Across the course of their relationship, they have two children Benny and Ellen. Despite the relationship and the children, Dr. Flint still chases after her forcing her to choose between becoming his mistress or a lifetime of work in the plantation, to which she chooses to go to the plantation instead of being with him (Jacobs, 129). Later on, she finds out a plot by Dr. Flintto bring her children to the plantation, and she is left with no other option but to flee. Around seven years later, she secures passage to Philadelphiaand later New York, where she meets Bruce and works until after the death of Dr. Flint, where her new boss acquires her freedom (Jacobs). On this basis, this paper will discuss to what extent is the author’s particular life-story, shaped by these aspects of the slave mother’s generic condition—the moral degradation caused by the system in which she was raised, and the love and frustrated protectiveness which slave parents continue to feel for their children. The notable point is that Harriet Jacobs uses pseudonyms throughout her book. In this paper, we will use her pseudonyms except for her own name. So, instead of Jacobs’s pseudonym, “Linda Brent,” we will be talking about Jacobs. However, instead of the historical “Dr. Norcom,” we will be talking about Dr. Flint (his pseudonym); instead of the historical “Samuel Sawyer,” we will be talking about Mr. Sands (his pseudonym); etc.
According to critics of the autobiography, the author’s primary accomplishment of the book was how she depicted the effect of slavery on the nature of humans.(Blidariu, 34). Through this book, Jacobswas able to express and illustrate the moral degradation deep-rooted in slavery. She was also able to convey how racism hand in hand with chauvinism shaped the encounters and options of suppressed womenduring the slavery regime (Blidariu).
Basing on the book, Jacobs uses the story to narrate her upbringing as a slave girl inside a white family (Jacobs). This being the case, her center of focus is on the vulnerability and moral plight of black women who are, without any doubt, helpless and defenselessagainst exploitation and abuse sexually.Jacobswanted toattain contemporary standards of womanly purity and respectability. However, her life is shaped differently by slavery, whereby she is subjected to continuous intimidation and harassmentfrom Dr. Flint. In order to protect herself from him, she is forced to have an affair with another man with whom they bore two children. In the narrative,Jacobs is seen to convey shame and remorse for having made these decisions. Still, however, she argues that she had no other optionbut to commit to the decisions she made, claiming that it was quite discriminatory to force matching sexual principles on both white women who are free and black women in slavery, as the latter were morallydegraded while there was nothing they could do about it (Jacobs).
The author, in the end, concludes that enslaved black women should not feel guilt-ridden and remorseful for failing to equal the standards set by a system that is hell-bent on repressing them, saying that, “I intend to live in such a manner that people cannot treat me with contempt.” (Jacobs, 245). All through the novel, the author reiteratesthe sufferings humiliation and wrongs that enslaved women of color go through, at one point she even said, “Millions of women at the South, still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse.” (Jacobs, 8). She, therefore, tries to explain how hers, together with other black enslavedwomen’s stories were shaped by slavery from a journey of mortification to entitlement and self-respect.
The author argues that slavery strips enslaved mothers of their legal rights over their little ones who are at times sold or exposed to harm. The love and frustrated protectiveness that slave parents continue to feel for their children is seen through the author and how this shaped her life. She considers the love she has for her children as the most empowering encounter and experience of her entire life. This compels her to at one point in the story claim that the slave mother “may be an ignorant creature, degraded by the system that has brutalized her from childhood; but she has a mother’s instincts, and is capable of feeling a mother’s agonies” (Jacobs, 26).Thisstatement stresses the point that black women, even though enslaved, also have feelings and worries about their children like other mothers and should, therefore, be given the privilege of taking care of their children.
Jacobs further claims that motherhood gives respect and status to women, even those enslaved (Jacobs). Jacobs stresses her love for the kids when she says, “When I was most sorely oppressed,I found a solace in his smiles” (Jacobs, 96) in this instance referring to Benny, her son.Her undying love and protectiveness for her children shaped the course of her life story since she had, on numerous occasions, desired to run away from slavery, but the only occasion in which she did so was when she became a mother.The ultimatum that Jacobs children may be subjected to slavery in the plantations makes her bold enough to escape in order to protect them. While in New York, she is inspired by the essential requirement of obtaining enough funds to fend for her children.Therefore, the necessity to keep her children safe and away from slavery is what determines her entire life story trying to do better by them (Jacobs).
In conclusion, moral degradation caused by the system in which she was raised to an extent shaped the life story of the author Jacobsin that despite striving had to uphold the feminine standards of chastity, slavery made it impossible and as a result, she had two children from an affair,who changed the entire course of her life. On the other hand, the love and frustrated protectiveness that she had for her children also shaped the author’s life story in that the thought of her children being enslaved in the plantations made her escape and seek a better life for them in New York.
Works cited
Blidariu, ŞerbanDan. “The Other Half of The Truth: Incidents in The Life ofa Slave Girl, A First-Hand Account of Slavery from A Woman’s Perspective.” Gender Studies, vol 16, no. 1, 2017, pp. 29-39. Walter De Gruyter Gmbh, doi:10.2478/genst-2018-0004. Accessed 4 Aug 2020.
[Jacobs, Harriet.] Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, edited by L. Maria Child, privately published, 1861.