In reading Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, I have never felt so sorry for women of slavery before. Growing up and learning about slavery, my classes never really discussed how women specifically were treated. However, through reading Jacobs’s memoir, it is clear that life back then for women was no cake walk. Along from still having no rights, slave women were considered absolutely nothing, basically not even a human being. Jacobs’s life was affected substantially by being in the lowest of “the lows” in social class and, because of her predicament, her successes were yielded but her failures were many.
In the beginning of her memoir, Jacobs has a very different view of America than most people. She describes America as the land of “stripes and scars” (768), because she had no freedom and was restricted and controlled by her slave master. She was in a constant state of prison and restriction, a life filled with the constant fear of the unknown for what would come next. She never had feelings of peace or comfort for substantial time periods because her mother was taken from her as a very young child and her caretaker passed along shortly after.
Under the imprisonment of her male master, Jacobs never had choices. As a female slave, her successes were limited, and as she quotes, “...a slave, being property, can hold no property” (770). During her time with her master, she fell in love with a free black man. However, because of her status and the fact that she was not free, her master forbade her from ever seeing the man again. And, as Jacobs states, even if they were to get married, “...the husband of a slave has no power to protect her” (772). Jacobs would have never been able to enjoy the happiness of a marriage because of her social class. In her master’s eyes, she was completely his and no one else’s, keeping her from enjoying God’s greatest gift: love.
In the middle of her story, Jacobs comes to a point where she warns the reader that this is a part of her life that she feels most ashamed about. However, she feels, “...that the slave woman ought not to be judged by the same standard as others” (778). Having a child unwed with a significantly older white male was something she was deeply ashamed of. Although she felt bad about her choices, she wanted to do this to have the hope that the father of her children would buy her, so she could at least never worry about being near her evil master again. Sadly, though, that never happened, and instead she had, “...no security for her children” (778), a mother’s biggest fear.
Near the middle of her life, Jacobs was able to escape slavery. However, she had to go through tumultuous crossroads to get to that point. Even with the success of having two healthy children, she felt it was still a failure because of the position she put herself in. Jacobs clearly states what life was like for a female slave and the state of living she was restricted to. Through her memoir, I have so much sympathy for female slaves and am thrilled that Jacobs was finally able to escape it.
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