What Is The Significance Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

There are four incidents from, In The Life Of A Slave Girl that have enhanced, challenged, reinforced and enlightened me. The first quote deepened my understanding, the second enhanced and deepened my thoughts, the third reinforced previous notions and the fourth enhanced my understanding of slaves ways of coping. This book in general has made me second-guess my previous thinking, solidified other ideas and challenge new ideas.
One of the first quotes that stood out to me in Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl, was “As a child, I loved my mistress; and, looking back on the happy days i spent with her, i try to think with less bitterness of this act of injustice” (Jacobs, Pg. 9). Reading this quote deepened my understanding of Southern American
slave culture. My uninformed previous notion was that all slave owners were terrible people. Considering the time period we are currently in, it is very hard for me to understand and rationalize the reasons slave owners could be decent good people. This quote challenges my previous thinking in a very uncomfortable way because she continues to say that after her mistress had passed, that the mistress distributed the rest of the slaves among her relatives. This makes me question Harriet Jacobs judgment on good and bad people. Because why would someone who was so “caring and good” not let them have freedom? This quote has opened my eyes but also continues to keep me feeling skeptical about slave owners having any moral compass. I understand that some white people were raised to believe that, that was just life and how the world worked. Additionally, i truly feel that if i was in that time period that i would have set people free. I feel this incident is important for others to be aware of because just because someone tells you, oh this person is nice, does not mean you should believe them right off the bat. I guess what i am saying is it is important for people to know to keep their guards up and analyze everything before they judge a person or situation.
The second quote in Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl, that enhanced and deepened my thoughts of Southern American slave culture was when Harriet Jacobs was explaining the nature of Mrs. Flint. Harriet Jacobs said, “Mrs. Flint, like many southern women, was totally deficient in energy. She had not strength to superintend her household affairs; but her nerves were so strong, that she could sit in her easy chair and see a woman whipped, till the blood trickled from every stroke of the lash” (Jacobs, Pg.14) This quote deepened my thoughts of Southern American slave culture because i did not previously think about the family of slave owners. I was just thinking as a slave owner as an individual person. Which is definitely not the case. Because the whole family by technicality owns her so they can all treat her how ever they want. So slaves were not only being mistreated by one person in the family but by the family as a whole. Which makes the situation a hundred times worse. This woman Mrs. Flint has been conditioned to be unaffected by brutality just like some people in our current military are today. No, i am not rooting for the other side, but i can not imagine the psychological toll that watching such brutality would have on someone like Mrs. Flint. If someone is psychologically damaged in that sense can we really expect them to be able to identify when something is wrong or on just? This quote deepened my previous thoughts but it also has created more depth and confusion in my own mind. I feel this incident is important for others to be aware of because i myself did not think about the family impact on slave life and i think it is an important note for depth of someone's understanding of Southern American slave culture.
The third quote from Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl, that reinforced my previous thoughts of Southern American slave culture, was when Harriet Jacobs said that Dr.
Flint, a few months before, pushed her down the stairs. Harriet Jacobs says, “Some months before, he had pitched me downstairs in a fit of passion; and the injury i received was so serious that i was unable to turn myself in bed for many days” (Jacobs, Pg. 99). This reinforces my previous thoughts of Southern American slave culture because who in their right mind and a good conscious would push a human being down a flight of stairs? It does not take a genius to know that someone being pushed down the stairs like that can be seriously be injured and in extreme circumstances die. Many slave owners i believe had a darker side, they wanted to feel some sort of power. I mean who does not like a sense of power? But this level of inhumane power is sickening. I feel this incident is important for others to be aware of because if you threw any living being down the stairs, you should know that there is something wrong and off about you or the person you know. Knowing it is wrong can save your life or someone
else's.
The last quote from Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl, that caught my attention was one of humor and sarcasm. Harriet Jacobs said, “ Hot weather brings out snakes and slaveholders, and i like one class of the venomous creatures as little as i do the other” (Jacobs, Pg. 223). This quote caught my attention because i feel to get through any difficult situation in life, you need to have somewhat of a sense of humor. The slaves who were in the Southern American slave culture that survived had to have a sense of humor. This quote to me is very humanizing, and reminds me that we all need to cope one way or another. But we all sometimes cope in the same way. To me it makes me feel closer to the situation that actuality. I feel this incident is important for others to be aware of because most of the time we focus on the dark side of what slaves said, but i feel their coping mechanism of using humor is important as well.
With how much depth and evidence this book gives i do not see how anyone could think or suspect this to be a fictionalized account of a slave's experience.
I myself genuinely believe that these incidents really did happen and i do not feel by any means that she is exaggerating her incidents. She might have had more emotion or had a different experience than someone else in the same situation, however, i do not think that this would give me any reason to believe that Harriet Jacobs was lying. There are two documents that i think are the most convincing. One being, ”Advertisement for the capture of Harriet Jacobs”(Jacobs, Pg. 301). I mean an actual document of the newspaper article that was looking for her, i believe is proof enough of her existence. In the paper it actually says, “$100 reward will be given for the apprehension and delivery of my Servant Girl HARRIET. She is a light mulatto, 21 years of age, about 5 feet 4 inches high”. This evidence to me shows that she is not some fictional character, her master was out looking for her and even put an ad in the paper to find her. The second piece of evidence that i think convinced me was Dr, Norcom’s note to his daughter, talking about the exchange of Harriet Jacobs children. The description on one of the pages of evidence states, “Dr. Norcom’s note repaying his daughter for having sold her ‘two mulatto Slaves named Joe & Louisa, the Children of woman Harriet,’ bu substituting two other children, August 4, 1837.” Why would
someone go out of their way to write a letter from a fake dad to a fake daughter about a fake persons children. That sounds like way too much work for anyone to falsify. This note written by Dr. Norcom to his daughter displays that she and her children were very much real. The last piece of historical evidence that convinced me that this was a factual story was the picture of the house that was reconstructed for Harriet Jacobs hiding place. The description states that the picture shown is of, “Molly Horniblow’s house: reconstructionto scale of elevation and floor plan showing Jacob’s hiding place”. This proves that she was not just dreaming of escaping her enemies, but she actually was doing it by having a legitimate hiding place. Any of the other photos for me are harder to use as evidence, because i feel it is much easier to take a random picture of a person and put a name on them. Lastly, the four incidents from, In The Life Of A Slave Girl, have shaped and better defined my understanding of Southern American slave culture. Harriet Jacobs has given me a story that i authentically believe was real and her own and a story that i can relate too and empathize with.