Chapter 10 of Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is entitled “A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life.” This title is significant because it does not merely refer to Jacobs’s passage through girlhood into womanhood, which would be regarded as a perilous passage for any women during the 19th century, but also the infamous middle passage of African Americans from freedom to slavery. Jacobs’s passage is doubly perilous, both as a slave who runs the risk of being sold further down the river, or to a cruel master, and also as a woman living in constant fear of rape. Eventually, Jacobs feels compelled to submit to Dr. Flint against her will, as a kind of rite of passage of enslaved womanhood, where women have to sacrifice their chastity and dignity to survive.
Jacob paints a poignant portrait of herself striving to uphold her family’s values based in faith, free choice, and chastity, though she unable to do it and eventually succumbs to Dr. Flint. “I tried hard to preserve my self-respect; but I was struggling alone in the powerful grasp of the demon Slavery; and the monster proved too strong for me. I felt as if I was forsaken by God and man; as if all my efforts must be frustrated; and I became reckless in my despair” (Jacobs 84). Jacobs makes a compelling argument that slavery is not simply evil because it denies freedom of the will to men and women, but also because it conspires to create conditions in which women have no choice but to submit to their...…veins; but for the sake of passing himself off for white, he was ready to kiss the slaveholders’ feet” (Jacobs 181). Her grandmother is very crafty, and even invites the man to her house on Christmas, to show him that the house did not contain Jacobs. The Christmas celebration makes a stark contrast between the sufferings endured by Jacobs in her narrow attic passage and the joy experienced by others, including the slave-catcher.
The fact that Jacobs is willing to undergo her captivity in the attic for freedom, and that slaves are willing to risk brutal punishments and even death for freedom likewise highlights the terrible nature of slavery. Slavery may corrupt women and cause moral decline, but ultimately Jacobs’s striving for freedom, and the desire of all slaves for freedom, cannot be daunted.
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Works Cited
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, 1861. Web. 7 Oct 2020. https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac179
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