Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an 1861 autobiography by former slave Harriet Jacobs wherein she describes her experience with the psychological effects of slavery.

Summary
Jacobs, writing under the pseudonym "Linda Brent", is born into slavery. Her parents are comparatively well-off for slaves, but they both die while she is still young. Her grandmother takes on the role of her caretaker. She is then inherited by her mother's mistress, who treats her relatively kindly and teaches her to read and write. The mistress, however, dies, and she is inherited by Dr. Flint, a cruel master. He continuously tries to take advantage of her sexually, but she resists, being subjected to immense psychological degradation in the process. In retaliation, she initiates a sexual relation with their white neighbor with whom she has two children, Benny and Ellen. The theme of motherhood is explored at length in the narrative because of her experience with these two children. Because of Dr. Flint's cruelty and relentlessness, Jacobs decides to escape. Because there is no way for her to escape undetected, she hides in a secret attic in her grandmother's house. Dr. Flint sells her two children to Jacobs's former lover who promises to one day free them.

After seven years of hiding in the attic, Jacobs finds an opportunity to escape on a boat to the North. She succeeds in making it to New York and is reunited with Ellen, who is still a slave. She works as a nursemaid for a kind woman in New York, where she is able to amass some money. She is soon reunited with Benny as well. Dr. Flint soon dies, but his daughter, the legal owner of Jacobs, tries to reclaim her. Because of the Fugitive Slave Act, Jacobs is unable to continue working due to the constant threat of her being recaptured into slavery. The daughter of the woman she used to work for then buys her freedom from Dr. Flint's daughter. Jacobs is angered that she was unable to achieve her freedom on her own terms, but had to be bought on her master's terms, but is grateful to have gained her freedom and is extremely appreciative of everything her grandmother did for her.

The Moral of the Story
Despite being a non-fiction account of her experience with slavery, Jacobs's Incidents is full of rhetorically charged language and sweeping imperatives. Her main points of contention are the evils of slavery and, more specifically, of the aforementioned Fugitive Slave Act. The book is primarily addressed to white women, as can be seen from the appeals to experiences of motherhood. Jacobs believed that the Fugitive Slave Act was a great evil that made the North guilty of perpetuating slavery. She argues passionately several times throughout the book for its abolition, which seems to be the most direct imperative of her writing.