Abstract
This paper reviews Harriet Jacobs' autobiography "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl". This paper discusses how, in her autobiography, Harriet Jacobs used domestic ideology of violated womanhood to sway her Northern audience to the cause of abolition.

From the Paper
"In Chapter 1, Jacobs stresses the angelic quality of her early upbringing, much like the idealized version of childhood cherished in the 19th century portrayal of a happy home. " I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them for safe keeping, and liable to be demanded of them at any moment." She also notes that "in complexion my parents were a light shade of brownish yellow, and were termed mulattos," a not-so subtle mention of the fact that her parents were at least partially white, creating an evident racial as well as domestic sense of sympathy between herself and her white readers whom she wished to convert to the abolitionist cause." Her uncle "inherited the complexion my grandmother had derived from Anglo-Saxon ancestors." (Jacobs, Chapter 1, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/JACOBS/hjch1.htm)
The plantation owner of Jacobs' maternal grandmother set her free. Thus Jacobs stresses that she was born, in some sense, free, in a venue of conventional, almost white hearth and home. This sense of conversation with the reader is further underlined by Jacobs' reference to the reader in an intimate fashion, as if she or he is beside her side. "The reader probably knows that no promise or writing given to a slave is legally binding; for, according to Southern laws, a slave, being property, can hold no property. When my grandmother lent her hard earnings to her mistress, she trusted solely to her honor. The honor of a slaveholder to a slave!".

Tags:slave, immorality, corrupted, abuse, vulnerable, female

Abstract
This paper explores the reasons why Harriet Jacobs, a slave who escaped to the North, wrote her slave narrative and discusses who her audience was. The paper looks at what may have motivated Jacobs to write her narrative and how she attempted to appeal to the audience of her narrative.

From the Paper
"According to Gates Jr between and one hundred book-length slave narratives had been written by slaves or former slaves while six thousand and six ex-slaves had related their tales to others through interviews essays and books In fact as Gates Jr further points out this is the only time in history where those who were held in bondage as slaves were able to write about their experiences and so create new genre of literature the slave narrative He also contends that scholars have shown the link

Tags:Harriet Jacobs, slavery

Abstract
This paper describes how Jacobs' novel describes her life as a slave in the South, while the narrative is specifically directed toward Northern white readers. It explains how the text is not just created to describe her life, it is also intended as a plea for help and understanding. The paper discusses how Jacobs created a narrative incorporating stereotypical assumptions and views, while effectively using them to force the Northern white reader into responding in the way she intends.

From the Paper
"Jacobs opens her narrative by describing her parents and grandparents. In doing this, she ensures that they are presented in such a way that the Northern reader would judge them to be good people. This is important to the meaning of the text, since Jacobs needs the readers to believe that slaves like her deserve something better. The way Jacobs describes her parents offers an insight into what Northern people would consider a respectable person. Jacobs introduces her father saying, My father was a carpenter, and considered so intelligent and skillful in his trade, that, when buildings out of the common line were to be erected, he was sent for from long distances, to be head workman (Jacobs 430). This description emphasizes that her father was considered valuable to society in general. He was not merely a hard worker, he was so capable and skillful that he was desired for his abilities. This suggests that the Northern people value men for what skills they can offer to society as a whole, with the worth of a man determined by what he can contribute."

Tags:north, south, stereotype, white, black

Abstract
This paper examines how female and male autobiographical narratives invariably take different forms because of the different, albeit culturally constructed, nature of male and female experience. In particular, it looks at the contrast between Frederick Douglass's narrative, its "plot" or true-life story structure and interest in comparison to Harriet Jacobs' tale of her escape from bondage. It explores how both tales are significantly impacted by the gender of the authors as well as the author's intent in writing and intended audience. Douglass tells the tale of a young man who escaped ignorance and violence through movement. Jacobs tells the tale of herself as a young woman and mother seeking escape from sexual exploitation, not through movement, but through hiding.

From the Paper
"Both authors wrote against the institution of slavery, and used their own, personal experiences of slavery in the South to generate support for the national abolition of the institution. At the time, the abolitionist movement was mainly grounded in the Northern states of America. However, Douglass wrote, and also spoke as a gifted orator, mainly to Northern Whites. Thus his autobiography uses elements of how slavery it detrimental to the "souls of White folk" (to turn a phrase of W.E.B. Dubois on its head) as well as those of the enslaved, to generate support for the anti-slavery cause. An example of this can be found in his description of a White woman whom is one of the first mistresses of the young, enslaved Douglass."

Tags:south, whites, blacks, violence

Abstract
This paper discusses "The Lost German Slave Girl," by John Bailey, a re-telling of the life of Salome Muller who claimed to have been sold into slavery as a child in the early 19th century. The writer explains that Bailey's book is based on newspaper accounts, first person statements from the actual participants, and transcripts of her court case. The main events in the story and in her trial are described. The writer points out, however, that since Bailey took exceptional license to recreate the saga, inventing a great deal of dialogue and color in order to make it more interesting, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction in his book, and this is problematic for a work purported to be historically accurate.

From the Paper
"Sally Miller, nee Salome Muller, had litigated a matter in which she claimed that she was a freeborn white woman who had beer wrongfully enslaved as a five-year-old orphan child in New Orleans. Bailey put down the Louisiana law books he had been poring over and read all that was available on the old case. He realized that what he was looking at was much more of a story befitting an author than would be the work he had contemplated. He dropped what he was doing and devoted his time to the telling of Sally Miller's story."

Tags:birthmark orphan community freedom famine Mississippi, slave trader, immigrant

Abstract
This paper examines the sexual duality in the life of Linda, a slave girl and the main character from Harriet Jacobs's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl". The paper shows how sexuality informs the life of an African American slave woman in ways that cannot be articulated by free women from the North or even by African American male slaves.

From the Paper
"Published in 1861, Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the first published narrative authored by a woman who was a former slave. However, despite this distinction and the earlier slave narratives of Frederick Douglass and John Brown, Jacob chose to conceal her identity and to publish under the pseudonym Linda Brent."

Tags:sexual, narrative, humiliation, bondage, southern, patriarchy, victim, master, powerlessness

Abstract
This paper focuses on the most prominent theme in Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" that is the unique and severe hardships that women faced under slavery. The paper details the sexual threats female slaves faced from both male slaves and slave owners alike, how slavery affected the relationship of slave mothers and their children, and the severe psychological torment slave women suffered.

From the Paper
"When Harriet Jacobs states that, "the condition of a slave confuses all principles of morality and in fact renders the practice of them impossible", she intends to portray the fundamental sin of slavery through the horrific burden it places on a slave's soul and psyche. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a based on real life testament of the debilitating effects of this institution on a woman who is enslaved in her earliest years and whose story ends with her still working for a white woman. Jacobs' story, told through the character of Linda, makes a case for the greater difficulty of slavery on women through the psychological torment she endures, and the relationships she has with her children, grandmother, and male owners Dr. Flint and Mr. Sands."

Tags:sexual, abuse, freedom, suffering, fear, captivity

Abstract
This paper explains that, in recent decades, Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl", published in 1861, is being interpreted as a narrative not only about a slave but also about a woman, a victim of a sexual abuser and a mother who sacrifices her chances for freedom to protect her children. The Christianity of the slaves in the story, the author relates, is demonstrated by the ways they use their Christian faith as a tool in the lives of slave and the master and mistress. The paper concludes that Jacob's narrative still holds relevance in the need for Christians to fight racism, sexism and discrimination.

From the Paper
"This is designed to offend the reader's Christian sense of honor and decent behavior. One is reminded of the old maid, buying the old female slave in order to release her, and this compares unfavorably with it. It is also made clear that Dr Flint takes sexual advantage of the women under his power, and several have his babies, although Mrs. Flint is callous to their suffering. ...
"As we are told that the baby is 'nearly white', the presumption that Dr Flint is the husband, as he is of other children."

Tags:baby, sexual abuse, christianity wife discrimination

Abstract
This paper examines how Harriet Jacob's autobiography, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", is a traditionally fashioned slave narrative printed around 1861. In it, one sees a fascinating and tragic personal view of the American past that both parallels traditional histories and also highlights elements of those histories that might otherwise escape notice. It shows how one can see in this story a definite sense of bowing to overwhelming, white preconceptions and moralities, particularly in terms of the expected behavior of a "virtuous" unmarried girl, and how there is also a large amount of what must have then been controversial condemnation of many of the aspects of American culture.

From the Paper
"The setting for this tale begins in the more Northernly of the slave-owning states, and at the end is transferred to the actual Northern Free States. These setting allow the author not only criticize the "peculiar institution" of slavery in the South, but also to make cutting and vital observations about problems in the North such as prejudice and laws which returned slaves to their masters. One of Jacobs main points regarding slavery is a refutation of the idea that slavery is in any way beneficial for society at large. She refutes this idea by trying to expose the corruption that exists across Southern culture as a result of slavery. One gets a sense of rot and complicity from her description of the Southern setting which is obviously designed to act against the idea of slavery."

Tags:prejudice, masters, north, south

Abstract
This paper reviews the autobiography "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", by Harriet Jacobs, written under the pen name Linda Brent. The author classifies the novel as a feminist novel, that takes a strong look into the eyes of a mother who loses her children either by unavailability of doctors, theft, or sale. The paper summarizes Linda's story of tortures of a slave sexually abused by her master, and the dichotomy of the master and slave relationship, which was all too common throughout the history of slavery.

From the Paper
"Harriet directs this to white readers, to dissolve any myths that were about at that time, saying that slave narratives were mostly false or exaggerated. She states her main character as a real person, so that any reader will refrain from immediately viewing the novel as fiction. She also tells her story emphasizing the trials of motherhood in slavery. This is an important contribution, because most slave narratives were written by men. Male slave narratives emphasized physical pain, torture, and endurance, while Harriet writes a new type of novel detailing female emotional and physical struggles."

Tags:slavery, sexual abuse