Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

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Frontispiece of the first edition

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a book that was published in 1861 by Harriet Jacobs, using the pen name "Linda Brent." It is considered a work of feminist literature. While on one level it chronicles the experiences of Harriet Jacobs as a slave, and the various humiliations she had to endure in that unhappy state, it also deals with the particular tortures visited on women at her station. Often in the book, she will point to a particular punishment that a male slave will endure at the hands of slave holders, and comment that, although she finds the punishment brutal in the extreme, it cannot compare to the abuse that a young woman must face while still on the cusp of girlhood.

Jacobs states plainly that Linda's condition as a slave is the root of her unhappiness, but the scant few times she says this is eclipsed by the multitude of attacks, suggestions and harassments visited upon her by her owner Dr. Flint. Dr. Flint does not punish her with whippings, but with words. He does not require her to perform strenuous tasks, but he does relentlessly assail her with lewd comments. By focusing the bulk of her work on a single male slave holder, Dr. Flint, she redirects the readers attention from the struggle between owners and slaves to the struggle between men and women.

Jacobs shows men in similar straits as Linda acting on their convictions and gaining their freedom. Both of Linda's brothers become free in the Northern states by escaping their Southern masters. Linda does not have that option open to her as she has ties to her children and is unwilling to leave them to suffer while she gains freedom for herself. Jacobs suggests, and clearly shows, that men, even enslaved men, have more personal freedom than women.

She certainly considers the suffering of women to be greater than that of men. This is shown on page 122[1] when, unhappy as she is with her condition in the garret, she is thankful for her "wretched hiding-place" after she sees the condition of her fellow slaves. Jacobs cites two cases -- the first of a slave muttering nervously to herself after being sold to a Georgia slave trader, and the other of a woman who, rather than suffer the degradation and torture of a whipping house, decides to jump into the river and end her life.

The positive images that she uses are singularly feminine: The strength of her mother and grandmother, the slaves that give her information while she is in hiding are all female, and the caring, nurturing nature of Mrs. Bruce. These reinforce the idea that the only place that this woman can turn for help is to other strong women, because male figures like Dr. Flint (her tormentor), Mr. Thorne (who would see her returned to the south in the interest of "patriotism") and Mr. Dodge (who is interested in her return only for the money it would bring to him) are pursuing their self-involved "masculine" interests and are a source of false refuge and respectability.

For that is, after all, the crux of Life of a Slave Girl: freedom and respect. Linda finds her respectability not as a mistress on the outskirts of town but rather as a free woman in the North. She achieves her goal by eschewing the definitions of 'slave' and 'woman,' and redefining her role. In the end she can live her grandmother's credo in action as well as put into practice the thought, "He that is willing to be a slave, let him be a slave."