Harriet Jacobs Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the story of Harriet Jacobs, an African-American writer who escaped slavery and was eventually freed. Harriet Jacobs begins by discussing her childhood, under a pseudonym, Linda Brent. We learn that she does not know she is a slave until after her mother dies when Linda is only six years old. She enjoyed her early childhood until she is given to the daughter of Dr. Norcom and his wife. Dr. Flint, the fake name for Dr. Norcom, was wealthy and cruel, and Linda and her brother William found comfort only in the kindness of their elderly grandmother Aunt Martha. After being pursued and realizing the inevitable, Linda starts an affair with the neighbor and ends up having two children with the neighbor. In hopes in being sold to the neighbor, Mr. Sands, Dr. Flint, plans to break Linda in as a field hand. Instead, Linda hides in the attic crawl space of her grandmother’s for seven years, watching her children grow.
Benny stays with the grandmother and Ellen is in Brooklyn with Mr. Sand’s Cousin, Mr. Hobbs. Linda and Ellen are reunited and while escaping from Dr. Flint again, they end up in Boston and are reunited with her son Benny. A few years later, the family lives together for a while then is split yet again. Linda goes to England to take care of Mr. Bruce’s daughter. On her return to Boston, Benny moves to California with his uncle and Ellen is off to boarding school. Ducking and dodging Emily’s request to purchase Linda, Mrs. Bruce ends up buying Linda and is in the slave system yet again. While living with Mrs. Bruce, despite everything, she becomes grateful of Mrs. Bruce and begins to write her book, Incidents of the Life of a Slave