Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

The aim of this essay is to answer the following questions

Discuss the role of "Big Mama" (Black female slaves working in the houses of their master) in the plantation system. Also, use modern and historic figures as examples.

Describe the relationship that Harriet had with her grand-mother.

Jacobs stated that her mistress had contempt for her. Explain.

What was Jacob's opinion of "Southern Homes"? Explain.

In the Narrative, Jacobs says she made a plunge into the "abyss". To what was she making reference?

What issues did Harriet ponder as she planned her escape? Was her escape a success or not? Explain.

Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a pioneering text in the slave narrative genre. Written under the alias Linda Brent, the book provides a harrowing description of Jacobs's life of bondage, from her birth into slavery in North Carolina to her escape and liberation in New York City. Mixing the techniques of traditional slave narratives and sentimental domestic fiction, the work represented a new literary form that employed popular literary conventions to confront controversial issues concerning female sexuality and self-sufficiency (McKay 5). One of the most shocking aspects of the work is Jacobs's explicit account of her sexual defilement at the hands of slave owners, a portrayal that horrified many of her contemporary readers and hindered Jacobs's effort to find a publisher (Lindgren 18). Questions concerning the work's authenticity, as well as Jacobs's authorship, began to surface soon after its original publication, and most readers regarded the narrative as fiction well into the twentieth century. In the early 1980s, however, scholar Jean Yellin proved conclusively that the autobiography was legitimate, and the ensuing years have witnessed a surge of critical interest in Jacobs and the work. Many scholars regard Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl as an important early work in the field of African American women's literature (Kaplan 91).

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl focuses on Linda Brent (Jacobs's literary persona), a fugitive slave living in New York City. In her preface to the work, Brent pleads for sympathy from her readers, insisting that her narrative cannot possibly do justice to the true horror of her experience (Kaplan 93-5). As Brent recounts the details of her life, a disturbing portrait of betrayal and degradation emerges. After the death of her mother, the six-year-old Brent moves into the home of her ...