Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Struggle, desperation, perseverance; these themes and more seem to be the central thesis of Harriet Jacobs' novel Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Based around the personal struggles of a slave's individual quest for freedom, this novel also details the incidents and lives of those whom she comes into contact with. The series of events that transpire over the course of the main character, Linda's, life as a slave define for herself and her audience not only what slavery means, but also what freedom means. Perhaps the most persistent and obvious subject matter laced throughout the novel is that of survival techniques. The requirements that the average slave must achieve in order to survive daily in their own life is drastic for the most part. Two characters that exemplify very obvious survival techniques are the main character Linda and her maternal grandmother. Linda's grandmother, though mentioned briefly in the novel's beginning, has a very important role in the novel as a whole as she appears later to help Linda in her own personal quest. She is a locally famous baker known for her crackers, and she used this to earn quite a decent sum of money and the promise of her freedom upon her mistress' death. However, being deceived by her mistress, she is put on the auctioning block but rescued by her mistress' sister and granted her freedom. Thus, her struggle was not in vain. Linda's grandmother had only one goal in mind for achieving her goals of freedom: secure the means to free her family as well. However, after granted her freedom it is only a bittersweet victory over injustice for her family is still enslaved. Thus, throughout the course of the novel, she goes by any means necessary to free the remainder of her family by doing such things as securing Linda specific, safe hiding places while she escapes the clutches of her master; risking her own life hiding Linda in her attic; and assisting in the safety of her great-grandchildren, Linda's