Analysis Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

In Harriet Jacob’s novel, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Linda Brent (pseudonym for Jacobs) flees the prison of slavery under Dr. Flint’s authority, only to be trapped in a new, more physically constraining cage: the crawl space of a shed outside her grandmother’s house. For seven years, she remains here trapped like a bird in the cage, a precursor to the empty cage and free bird image, “The Pretty Robin”, that Ginsberg describes in her essay “Of Babies, Beasts, and Bondage” (86, 88). The freeing image is one of many powerful illustrations directed towards young readers that abolitionists “used…self-consciously to promote the antislavery cause” (Ginsberg 86). Linda’s position of being trapped in the crawl space parallels “The Pretty Robin” through the anticipation of a release. Linda enters the metaphorical cage of her own free will and choice. However, much like her decision to sleep with Mr. Sands rather than submit to Dr. Flint’s crude advances, it is just an illusion of choice. To survive and protect her children, entering the crawl space is her only choice, but a choice that does lead to her ultimate goal of eventual release.
Flint made every effort to ruin her virtue and “tried his utmost to corrupt the pure principles [Linda’s] grandmother had instilled” (Jacobs 30). The cage she is put in by Dr. Flint is constructed so that she can be observed by himself. Putting a different cage, or barrier, of her own making between herself and Dr. Flint provides her with safety, but it is just a smaller, more confining cage within the larger cages of her life (Dr. Flint’s and slavery’s) and keeps her locked away from her freedom. The choice of this cage does give Linda autonomy to keep her body away from Dr. Flint, but in doing so she has to keep her body away from everyone else, as well. Linda must be alone in this cage in order for it to protect her