Life of a Slave Girl

FOR THOSE OF YOU FAMILIAR with Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs needs no introduction. For those just discovering this work, you are about to embark on the exploration of a remarkable story. Incidents is an autobiographical account of Harriet Jacobs' experiences as an enslaved woman in Edenton, North Carolina, and as a fugitive in the North. It is the only book-length slave narrative written by a woman.

Harriet Jacobs went against traditional nineteenth-century values by pursuing a sexual relationship. She chose a relationship with a white man not her "master" to protect her children and her family, to protect herself from the persistent sexual harassment by her owner, Dr. James Norcom (Flint), and to support her own integrity by choosing for herself who would have access to her body. She asserts that enslaved women should be judged by different standards than free white women, that they are forced into "premature knowledge" because of the licentious habits of male slave owners and are then subject to punishment by their jealous wives. In choosing to have a sexual relationship with a white neighbor, Jacobs circumvented Norcom's pursuit, but enmeshed herself in new complications that make this into one of the most remarkable narratives--and lives--of the nineteenth century.

For one view of the relationship of Jacobs' choices and nineteenth-century morals, please see my essay, "Representative Woman: Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."

To protect herself and her family, Jacobs chose to write under the pseudonym Linda Brent. This was not a common practice in slave narratives. It caused some later scholars to doubt that it was a true story and generated speculation that it was a novel written by her editor, Lydia Maria Child. Research conducted by noted Jacobs scholar, Jean Fagan Yellin, and the discovery of correspondence between Jacobs and Amy Post confirmed Jacobs' authorship beyond the doubt of even the most skeptical critic.

I explore the need to authenticate Jacobs' authorship, the author-editor relationship between Jacobs and Child, and a detailed publishing history of Incidents in "An Inquiry into the Text Transmission of Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."

Students and teachers are encouraged to use this site. I always welcome corrections and suggestions for improvements. Please feel free to email me. For information on the most recent updates, please read the note below or go to A Note from the Webauthor. 1. Representative Woman: Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Copyright © 1995 Trudy Mercer

I knew what I did, and I did it with deliberate calculation.

Harriet Jacobs

I recognize no rights but human rights.

Angelina Grimkй

Works Cited

The slave narratives of pre-Civil War America may exemplify the earliest and most dramatic uses of the "personal as political," and the sharing of experiences as a means of "consciousness raising." These phrases, coined during the 1960's Women's Movement, have their philosophical foundation in the Abolition Movement of early nineteenth-century America. Because the birth of the (official) feminist movement in the United States occurred during that early struggle for human rights and civil rights for African Americans, slave and free, it should not be surprising that the same strategies used to raise (and direct) the consciousness of the American public were embraced again later by women seeking to raise their own consciousness. Common to the ideas of "consciousness raising" and the personal revelation as political statement is the concept of agency. Without personal agency there is no political agency; and without political agency, personal agency can be denied. Freedom for the slaves, and civil rights for the African American community, meant the realization of personal agency and its translation into political agency.

For the enslaved woman, race and gender meant a double oppression: not only was the produce of her labor owned by another, but her body and her reproductive power as well. Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl brought into the public and political arena the sexual oppression of captive black women. By publicly sharing her experiences with Dr. James Norcom (Flint), Jacobs presents the dilemma faced by all enslaved women: the conflict between virtuous, womanly ideals and sexual exploitation by white masters. In searching for a resolution to this conflict, Jacobs demonstrates the power of personal agency in thought, speech, and action. She suggests that slave women be judged by different standards than those applied to other women, and in doing so develops a moral code that addresses the specific social and historical position of captive, black women. Yet, Jacobs' work goes beyond this: her ingenuity, strength of will, and powers of speech were standards of womanly behavior being newly developed by the emerging feminist movement. Jacobs' work first found its place in history as a "slave narrative" protesting the abuses perpetrated against captive men and women, but I suggest that it reaches beyond the boundaries of this genre and stands as an important feminist document. Incidents is a real life demonstration that the social strictures placed on nineteenth-century women to maintain the "four cardinal virtues--piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity" (Welter, 21)--were applicable only in certain ideal settings for white women and an impossible code for enslaved women to follow. In struggling against the brutal dynamics of a system that simultaneously set before her ideals of "true womanhood" yet refused to acknowledge her as a human being, Jacobs emerges scarred but victorious. Her rational powers and will to action facilitate her efforts to find strategies for dealing with sexual harassment from her master, for maintaining family unity, and for establishing a moral code in harmony with her beliefs and situation. Using principles for agency developed in Angelina Grimkй's "Letter Xll: Human Rights Not Founded on Sex" and Appeal to the Christian Women of the South, I will examine Jacobs' agency in her initial battle with Flint, her contradictory position as a virtuous young woman and an enslaved female, and the decision that established a foundation of personal agency for herself and her children.

In a published letter to Catherine Beecher, "Human Rights Not Founded on Sex," Angelina Grimkй establishes a code of behavior that