Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

Jacob's narrative deals with her struggle of being a slave in hiding. Her where-abouts are unknown to most people, except her grandmother. She must even keep her location a secret from her two children, Ellen and Benny. Jacob's goes to all of these extremes in an attempt to hide from Dr. Flint, her owner. From Harriet Jacob's narrative, it goes to show the determination and persistence she was willing to exert in order to escape the horrible fate that many slaves had to deal with. It also goes to show the mindset people in that time period had about the life a slave, they were purely property and objects to be used, abused, and thrown away at will. I took particular interest in the way Jacob's structured her writing; taking the audience into the small prison like room she confined herself to, detailing her daily struggles as they progressed through the seasons, then relating it to the congressman's quote about slavery being a social and political blessing. It is both very interesting and sad the way some people viewed the lives of slaves.