Incidents of a Slave Girl

¶ … Life of a Slave Girl

"Incidents in the Live of a Slave Girl" is a moving story of one black woman's struggle in early America. Jacobs shows how she became part of the families she lived with and who held her as a slave, but shows how her own family came first. She saved her children from slavery, but white people also used and abused her. She shows she was a strong woman who knew right from wrong, but could not help but "sin" at times because of her background and her circumstances. Black slaves had very little choice except to submit to their masters' wishes or run away. Jacobs did both at times in her life, and they were the right choices at that particular time.

Jacobs wanted people to understand what she went through, and her story does that. Her grandmother loses a loan to her owner, her own grandson is sold away from her, and Harriet grows up to understand that she is the property of someone else, and might never be free. She also shows what really went on in Southern households, and that the men would sleep with their slaves, but never acknowledge their actions. It sounds like a terrible place to live, and terrible conditions to live under. Jacobs' story shows how ignorant people were about just what really happened to slaves and what horrible lives most of them led. It shows how her own children were taken away from her and mistreated, and how she had to hide away from the old master, so he would not abuse her. The story is hard to read because Jacobs goes through so many hardships and difficulties.