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A review by charlotekerstenauthor
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs
I have a lot of trouble articulating just how much this book means to me and how much respect I have for Harriet Jacobs. If you don't know anything about her, Jacobs grew up enslaved and spent years hiding from her master in an attic before escaping to the North. She then joined the abolitionist cause and wrote this book, which is the first female slave narrative. In it she speaks brilliantly about the experiences of black women in slavery, from the inescapable predations of white men to the constant terror of being separated from your children.
Her argument is one that is still every bit as relevant to this day as it was when published: that black women are dehumanized, victimized because of that dehumanization and then blamed for the victimization. It's also an argument that played really well to her 19th century audience's obsession with respectability politics- how can enslaved women be blamed for not fulfilling the same moral standards as white women when the conditions of their enslavement make "virtue" an impossibility?
If I had my way this book would be taught right alongside Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and would be just as well known. I think everyone should read it.
Her argument is one that is still every bit as relevant to this day as it was when published: that black women are dehumanized, victimized because of that dehumanization and then blamed for the victimization. It's also an argument that played really well to her 19th century audience's obsession with respectability politics- how can enslaved women be blamed for not fulfilling the same moral standards as white women when the conditions of their enslavement make "virtue" an impossibility?
If I had my way this book would be taught right alongside Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and would be just as well known. I think everyone should read it.