Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

About the Author (Harriet Jacobs)

• Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is one of the few slave narratives that are written from a female perspective.
• Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery, but her first owner was a kind woman who taught her to read and sew.
• This woman died when she was 12, and she was passed on to the daughter of Dr. James Norcom ("Dr. Flint" in the book).
• Norcom makes sexual advances towards Jacobs since she's a teen, but she resisted and started a relationship with his neighbor, Samuel Sawyer ("Mr. Sands" in the book), having 2 children.
• Norcom harassed her even more, but eventually got mad and punished her by sending her and her children to work for his son ("Mr. Flint" in the book).
• After arriving at the son's plantation, she ran away and left her children. She hid in a tiny attic at her grandmother's, and hoped Samuel would buy the children.
• Samuel bought the children, but she had to stay hidden for over 7 years.
• In 1842, her friends helped Jacobs escape to New York, where she was eventually bought by an employer.
• The narrative was published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, the name she calls herself in the narrative.

Summary

• THE FLIGHT: When the narrative begins, Linda has spent 6 weeks in Mr. Flint's plantation.
• Mr. Flint was the son of her old owner, Dr. Flint.
• Mr. Flint is preparing the house for his new bride.
• Mr. Flint says he will break Linda's spirit, something his father was unable to do.
• Linda has learned the next day, her children would be taken from their grandmother's house and brought to the plantation where they would work and be used to manipulate Linda.
• Linda worked faithfully for Mr. Flint as a house servant, but they were afraid she'd leave.
• Mr. Flint wanted her to sleep in the great house instead of at the servants' quarters, but she couldn't bring her bed because the wife said it would scatter feathers on her carpet.
• Since she knew what would soon happen to her children, she decided to leave that night.
• Her grandmother strongly advised against fleeing.
• Mr. Flint inquired why the house was open, but Linda insisted she had not finished working.
• Linda escaped at half past twelve midnight (12:30am) by jumping from a window. 
• She prays for guidance and arrives at her grandmother's.
• Linda doesn't want to wake up her grandmother in the middle of the night, especially for this reason she know she would be against, so she knocks in Sally's window.
• Sally was a woman who had lived in the house a few years, and a faithful friend.
• Sally tells Linda her grandmother is trying to buy her wand her children, along with Mr. Sands (father of Linda's children, lawyer).
• Linda tells Sally she has a hiding place, but doesn't say where it is. She just tells Sally to go into her room the next day and empty it.
• Linda's children were called Benny and Ellen.
• Mr. Sands, the father, wanted to be kind, but the babies didn't mean as much to him as they did to Linda's "womanly heart." She prays for them.
• Linda goes out to the rain and the darkness, and goes to the house of a friend who'll hide her.
• The next morning, Mr. Flint shows up at the grandmother's house, but does not find Linda. He says he and his wife treated her very well, and that she ran off without provocation.
• Mr. Flint says anyone involved in the escape will receive 500 lashes.
• They searched the grandmother's house from top to bottom, but did not find her there.
• They read the law against harboring fugitives to boats leaving, and made advertisements in every corner, signed Dr. Flint (subscriber):
• $300 reward for Linda, an intelligent, bright, mulatto girl who is 21 years of age, has dark eyes, black and curly hair and can read and write.
• $150 was to be given if found in-state, $300 if out-of-state
• MONTHS OF PERIL: Linda hides in the house of an unnamed friend for a week, and they almost find her.
• She had to run into the bushes once, and was bitten by a poisonous snake or lizard. An old woman treats her with a folk remedy.
• Linda vows "give me liberty or death" when she refuses to return to the Flints.
• A sympathetic white woman (benefactress), friend of her grandmother, takes Linda in and hides her in a small storage room.
• The woman sent her cook, Linda's friend Betty, to meet Linda and take her to the house.
• She would not tell this to anyone.
• Linda thought she was the most fortunate slave in town.
• She had a type of little cell with a window from which she could see Dr. Flint walking to his office, and opposite to her window was a pile of feather beds.
• She got anxious when she saw Dr. Flint, thinking she outwitted him.
• Linda says the only weapon of the weak and oppressed against the strength of their tyrants is being CUNNING.
• Dr. Flint wouldn't sell Linda's children because he cared more for revenge than money (even though the children cost him money and didn't produce much, he kept them just to irk Linda).
• Dr. Flint put her brother William, her aunt who served him for 20 years, and both of Linda's children (Benny and Ellen) in jail so they'd give him information about her.
• Dr. Flint swore they wouldn't see their grandmother until Linda was brought back.
• She wanted to go get her children, but the white woman hiding her said her aunt would take care of her family in jail and that she should just stay hidden.
• Linda received a note from William that begged her not to come for them in jail, as they are all better off than her and she'd ruin them if she came.
• If she couldn't do it for her children, at least for those she'd ruin.
• She takes his advice and keeps quiet.
• The aunt was taken out of prison in a month because Mrs. Flint needed her. We see sarcasm in this last paragraph:
• Mrs. Flint needed her because "she was tired of being her own housekeeper."
• "It was quite too fatiguing to order her dinner and eat it too."
• Her kids stayed in jail with William, but Betty saw them sometimes even though she wasn't allowed inside, as William would hold up the kids to the grated window while she talked to them.
• The kids wanted to see their mom, and this made Linda cry.
• Her aunt says she shouldn't be so "chicken hearted" because she'll never get though this world like that.