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It's the first narrative I've read by a woman who escaped from slavery, and it has significant differences from male slave narratives. Instead of blaming their husbands (sons, brothers), female slaveholders often blamed the victims - the female slaves and their children.
And that's just one of the questions addressed by this observant, emotional and well-written narrative. Female slaveholders often treated their husbands' sex slaves - and the resulting children - with special malice and cruelty.
I've always been fascinated by slavery in America, and I've read several dozen books on the subject. Jacobs answers that question in full, with chilling details.
I recommend this book highly, especially for those who have not considered how slavery turns masters into monsters. But "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Jacobs was a real eye-opener.
Jacobs talks about the unique misery of being a female slave, writing that "Slavery is terrible for men, but it is far more terrible for women." I always wondered how the wives of slaveholders reacted to the knowledge that their husbands were having sex - and fathering children - with their human property.
Reading about her life and the daily lives of other slave men and women, reading about what she personally endured to be free, her seven year wait for escape in a crawlspace so small and short she couldn't even stand up, has forever changed my opinion of the antebellum South, "Gone with the Wind" is really, truly.gone. This is one of those books you can hardly put down. I was raised to believe that slavery was wrong, and yet.I was also raised on that "Gone with the Wind" image of the south where faithful black slaves were treated like family and the Yankees were the bad guys, and even though I saw the "Gone with the Wind" antithesis "Roots" as a kid, that one for some reason never really sank in.Harriet has made me think. Maybe it's because I'm a Southerner that I find this book so interesting, I don't know.
I didn't know what to expect when I bought this book. Reading this book was an act of homage. She's made me realize just how horrible the institution of slavery was. I was afraid the writing might be antiquated, but the topic was of such interest I thought it worth a try.
I only know that reading this book as made me look at my beloved South, of which I am so proud, in a much less prideful light. Homage to a brave woman, who 150 years after the publication of her book is still making us think. I'm so very glad I did. I couldn't stop reading it.
I would recommend it for anyone. Growing up I always heard of how slaves were treated but when you actually read it from a "SLAVES" view, it brings a whole new perspective. I don't do well just picking up a book, reading it through and keeping interest throughout. This book was part of a history course and I have found it very interesting as well as informative.
At the same time, it was like looking at an accident-what you experienced was imprinted on your mind in an incredibly horrid way. Reading about the horrors of slavery through the experiences of this slave girl was interesting-as these type of details should be told. In all the story was extraordinary and despite my feelings, theses types of truths must be shared far more often in this venue and in our national curricula as well. This memoir was absolutely enthralling. And yet, I am left with oxymoronic feelings.
For over 100 years, scholars and historians assumed that the narrative was false, either ghost written by the editor (Lydia Maria Child) or completely written by her without a grain of truth. Linda must try to ward of the sexual advances of her master while simultaneously dealing with the sexual jealously of her mistress. This is, perhaps, the most radical and important message in Jacobs' text. Linda's mother, grandmother, and first mistress all believed in the cult of true womanhood, a prevelant ideology in mid-nineteenth century America that said that women should be "pure, pious, domestic and submissive." Linda was raised with these ideas, but failed to live up to them.
Often taught along side Frederick Douglass's Narritive of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl offers an important incite into the abuses that female slaves faced. Thanks to the work of historian Jean Fagan Yellin, we now know that the narrative was written by Jacobs herself and that all the major events in the narrative are true. From the time that the narrative was published (anonymously) until the 1980s, the authenticity of Jacobs' narrative has been called into question. While Douglass's narrative stresses house slavery emasculated male slaves, Jacbos shows how slavery robbed female slaves of their womanhood.
While Linda feels shameful and guilty for failing to live up to the standards of the cult of true womanhood, she realizes that slave women cannot be judged by the same standards as middle-class white women because their cultural context is so different. There is no reason why this book shouldn't be read as an authentic slave narrative. Jacobs' alter-ego, Linda Brent, was never physically beaten, like Douglass; the horrors of slavery for her were sexual horrors. This text is important because it shows how the experience of slavery was gendered and how the experience of womanhood was different for people in different classes.
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