INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL
(1861)
Author: Harriet Ann Jacobs
Presentation by: Emily Wafford
Personal Details
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Harriet Ann Jacobs born in North Carolina in 1813.
Mother, Delilah, died when she was young.
Father, Elijah, skilled workman.
Born into slavery.
Raised by her freed Grandmother, who tried many times to
purchase Harriet’s freedom.
Her master was Dr. James Norcom (Dr. Flint).
She had two children with a white slaveholding neighbor that
happened to be a lawyer, Samuel Sawyer.
She lived in a crawl space in her grandmother’s house to evade
capture.
She and her children manage to escape to New York where she
worked for a popular writer (Nathaniel Parker Willis).
Position in Society
 Slave who is determined to be set free and later becomes a force
to be reckoned with in the predominate white society.
Viewpoints
 She was whole heartedly against slavery and the repercussions it
created on every one who participated.
Major Events
 Her book was released to the public weeks before the Civil War
in 1861.
 She was against slavery and the affects it had on all parties
involved.
Intended Audience
 The primary motive was to address white women of the North
on behalf of the thousands of “slave mothers that are still in
bondage” in the South.
Main Points
 Slavery was harmful to the stability and structure of
many Southern families, and therefore destabilized the
Southern society and culture as a whole.
o Slaves were thought to be property disregarded as a person
with no emotions or thought, even the life of a child could
escape the oppression of slavery.
 “He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to
his will in all things. My soul revolted against the mean
tyranny.”
o Slavery damaged the institution of family values.
 The white children were brought up to think slavery
was right but saw the tensions that it caused within
their family.
 The white women took their frustration out on the
slave girl because they were more vulnerable to
attack than their husbands were.
 “The mistress, who ought to protect the helpless victim,
has no other feelings toward her but those of jealousy
and rage.”
o The white men were also affected by slavery in that
it gave them more power and satisfaction.
 The master would go to the slave girl for his guilty pleasure
because she would be at his disposal.
 “My master met me at every turn, reminding me that I
belong to him, and swearing by heaven and earth that
he would compel me to submit to him.”
 Southern women knew that their men had fathered slave
children and saw them as property.
 “…Southern women often marry a man knowing that
he is the father of many little slaves. They do not
trouble themselves about it. They regard such children
as property, as marketable as the pigs on the
plantation…”