Harriet Jacobs

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a work written by Harriet Jacobs. We are introduced to the antagonist of the story, Linda, who is a young orphaned slave for Dr. Flint. We learn quickly that Dr. Flint is raping Linda. Linda hates her master for what he does to her, but her hatred is futile as she is too ashamed and scared to say anything. The doctor pays special attention to Linda, never beating her and giving her special treatment. This special treatment breeds jealousy, hatred, and contempt in the doctor’s wife. One day the mistress sits down with Linda and gets Linda to tell her everything that has happened between her and the doctor, furthering the hatred the mistress feels towards Linda. The story continues as Linda speaks of her love life. She wants to marry a free slave, but is denied by her master. In an attempt to spite her master, Linda becomes impregnated by another white man named Mr. Sands. Eventually, Linda would have two children with Mr. Sands, Benjamin and Ellen, respectively. Linda constantly tries to think of ways to get her freedom throughout the story, especially now that she has children, but is always denied by Dr. Flint. Eventually, Linda is forced to move to a new plantation with Dr. Flint’s daughter, her true owner. While here, she eventually learns of the Flint family’s plans to never set her or her children free, keeping them in slavery forever. So, in final attempt to save her children from slavery, Linda makes the ultimate sacrifice by running away from the plantation, never to see her children again, to go in hiding so that her children may one day be bought and freed.

                The first thing that struck me about this story is that not only is it written by a slave, but it is also the first work written by a female we have discussed. Why did she refer to herself as Linda and not Harriet? The story struck me as another coming-of-age story, much like My Kinsman, Major Molineux.  I found it disgusting to find that female slaves in the south were treated in such a horrible manner. However, I believe Jacobs willingly had relations with Dr. Flint in order to avoid being treated as harshly as normal slaves did. That being said, I wonder if I would have done the same thing in her position? Also interesting was the way she talked back to Dr. Flint, telling her she hated and despised him and exercised some control over him. Dr. Flint often said he could kill her, but never once struck her until very late in the story. It was interesting to see them exercise power over each other in very different ways. It became pretty evident to me that Dr. Flint truly had feelings for Linda. For instance, when Dr. Flint learns of Linda’s first love and Mr. Sands, he asks if she loves both of them.

                The mistress or wife also had much power. She knew what was going on, yet remained with her husband. With all of the talk about interracial babies, it seems that owner-slave relationships was quite a common practice in the south. I also found it interesting that Linda’s grandmother had such authority that Dr. Flint seemed to be scared of her. She often argued with Dr. Flint.