Reader, it is not to awaken sympathy for myself that I am telling you truthfully what I suffered in slavery. I do it to kindle the flame of compassion in your heart for my sisters who are still in bondage, suffering as I once suffered.In the pre-civil war period of 1861, Harriet Jacobs was the only black woman in the United States to have authored her own slave narrative, in a call to "arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South...to convince the people of the Free States what slavery really is." Jacobs hoped that, should the white women of the North know the true conditions of the slave women of the South, they would not fail to answer the call to moral action. With the help of a northern abolitionist, Jacobs published this astounding, poignant record under the pseudonym Linda Brent.She was a slave woman, who for seven years lived in a tiny attic space in her grandmother's house before making her escape to the north. In Incidents, she recounts her story from her childhood, writing in lyrical and intimate tones which, in spite of its painful, agonizing rhetoric, coaxes the sensibilities of the reader. To Linda's credit, accounts of the ugly features in the daily life of a female slave; atrocities, treachery, humiliation; the lengths taken to evade the licentious abusers free at hand to mistreat, with impunity and the sanction of social (and religious) law; being hunted and separated from her children, were narrated with striking control and measured emotion, so that the reader is not overwhelmed by the lashes of such oppressive events.As a black slave woman, Linda suffered hardships unimaginable to women of the North. She spent most of her adolescent life in the household of Dr. Flint, barely able to keep at bay his lecherous sexual advances. Flint was consumed by a neurotic obsession that grew in severity and viciousness whenever his sexual harassments were foiled. "My master met me at every turn, reminding me that I belonged to him, and swearing by heaven and earth that he would compel me to submit to him."Linda could not accept the destruction of her moral and physical being, that is to say, by the conventional sexualizing of a female slave. She refused to become the passive female victim - instead, she was fiercely determined to protect her virtue and to steer its destiny herself, to uphold her dignity, to seek freedom or die in her attempt. As a final recourse to escape the grasp of one she hated and knowing it would outrage him, she succumbed instead to a kindly white neighbor to whom she would bear two children.When he told me I was made for his use, made to obey his command in every thing; that I was nothing but a slave, whose will must and should surrender to his, never before had my puny arm felt half so strong... The war of my life had begun; and though one of God's most powerless creatures, I resolve never to be conquered.Linda writes of her struggle to protect her womanhood with an ironclad sense of self, a determination to maintain an autonomous identity impenetrable to assault. She contrasts the roles of the female slave juxtaposed with those of the white female slaveholder, as they both existed under the same 'patriarchal roof,' and offers that, as hateful as slave owners were, there were those who were good and benevolent, though not in equal portions. She puts in grave context the uniquely female burdens of slavery: how inhumanly debauched and grotesquely disfigured white slaveholders were, being empowered by ownership of female slaves.Women are considered of no value, unless they continually increase their owners stock. They are put on a par with animals. This same master shot a woman through the head who had run away and been brought back to him...The master who did these things was highly educated, and styled a perfect gentleman. He also boasted the name and standing of a Christian, though Satan never had a truer follower.Landing on Philadelphia's soil, having severed the bonds from 'master,' was the ultimate triumph for the naturally virtuous spirit that could never acknowledge itself to be 'chattel.' Linda managed to keep the reins on her own destiny, pride and dignity; in her memory, she stored the love of family she left behind, and to her heart most dearly, she held her children. An important historicization of the female slave role or a victorious feminist's literature, Incidents also exists as a testimonial of tragic human losses in an oppressive institution, and a solemn reminder of those who did not escape it. For Harriet Jacobs aka Linda Brent , it is both a blood-soaked lamentation and an enlightening melody of the break from the chains that bound her. She concludes with subtext as impressive as her escape strategy: "Reader, my story ends with freedom; not in the usual way, with marriage." Harriet Ann Jacobs, 1813-1897 Fugitive Slave, Writer, Abolitionist

This powerful memoir gives us a little feel of slaverys inescapable relentlessness. Its painful to read and experience along with the author, but what an inspiring heroine.I had heard that the poor slave had many friends at the north. I trusted we should find some of them. Meantime, we would take it for granted that all were friends, till they proved to the contrary.If a woman who went through what Harriet Jacobs went through: years of oppression by the family that owned her, constant fear for herself and her family, 7 years hiding in a tiny garret, being terrorized by the horrific Fugitive Slave Act if after all of that she can say this, can give people the benefit of the doubt, people she has every reason in the world to despise and be deathly afraid of, does that not put the rest of us to shame? What would they have done under similar circumstances?Despite a life of such painful constraint and persecution, Harriet Jacobs left an amazing legacy. In addition to writing this enlightening book, she went on to become a nurse during the Civil War, and to devote herself to assisting postwar black people, even founding The Jacobs Free School. At the end of this narrative we learn about the legacy of the man who was once her slave master. Ill just say the contrast is striking.

As I start to write this review, the literary internet is blowing up somewhat because the Association for Library Service to Children has changed the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award to the Childrens Literature Legacy Award. The change is only to the name of the award (the ALA or ALSC is not banning the books) largely because of the comments about Native Americans in the books, including people saying things like a good Indian is a dead Indian. While some people are upset at the eradicating on Wilders legacy (not sure how a name change is eradicating, though a civil discussion online included a person pointing out that some people can see the name removal as a disrespect to a legacy), there are equally enough people (myself included) who are fine with it. Wilders books are a product of her time (and her daughter to some degree). And if I was a poc, I would be very uncomfortable with an award for childrens literature named after an author who does have racism in her books, especially when there is a focused effort to make childrens books more diverse.What all this did was contribute to how I think about the literary canon. The canon should be, at the very least, ever growing. Now, dont get me wrong. There is a host of reasons why we dont have very many good English Renaissance Woman poets, and those reasons have nothing to do with the size of womans brains or talent. That said, the canon is still largely male and white. For instance, and more to the point of this review, while we should read Frederick Douglass, why shouldnt we also read Harriet Jacobs?Jaocbs book is truth but with the names changed. In the book, she is Linda, her children have different, and one presumes that the names of the slave owners are different too. This makes sense for why Jacobs court abduction and harm by would using her own name, or harm those who aided her in her escape.Jacobs work chronicles Lindas birth into slavery, and injustice as her family was kidnapped back into slavery after being returned their freedom. The bulk of the book is focuses on Lindas struggles to gain her freedom. This starts as a result of attempts to avoid being raped by her legal owners father. Her legal owner is a five-year-old girl at the start of the book. Whereas Douglass could not write about a womans experience under slave, Jacobs can. Not only does she explore the greater obstacles that an enslaved woman had to overcome, but she also illustrates why it is the male slave narrative that tend to greater play. It is difficult, extremely difficult, to escape and leave your children behind as well as cover land while pregnant or nursing. The interesting thing is that the story shows us a case of a master relationship with his slave that isnt a physical attack of rape. Now, Lindas master does want to rape her. He has the power, she really cannot say no. But it is important to note that he does not physically attack her. He keeps offering her nice things and then threatening her with punishment. The attacks are mental and not physical, undoubtedly to make the slave owner justify himself. Its an important aspect to know about. As is Lindas solution to the problem is to take as much control of her own destiny as she can in her very limited opportunities. It also raises the question of freedom and sexual freedom.Jacobs is also more aware of the contrast between the public face of slaver owners and the private face of slave owners. She notes the hidden lives of Congressman as well as the hypocrisy of a preacher getting a black enslave woman pregnant and the society not caring but watch out if it is a white woman who is not his wife he gets pregnant.This is a book that should be read and included more often in composition courses.