Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a slave narrative by Harriet Jacobs, under the
pseudonym of Linda Brent, that gives a true account of the brutality slavery held for women.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is Jacobs’ own story of what it was like to be born and raised
in slavery. Through her book, she gives the reader a clear picture of the life of a female slave in
the South. The story is very much interwoven with the “cult of true womanhood”(where is this quoted from?). Brent hardly embodied the ideal picture of true womanhood painted by white, upper class and later middle class women: pious, pure, submissive, and delicate. The story gives the perspective of a woman slave on slavery, a perspective that was relatively secretive during Jacobs’ time. Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl focus on the challenges Brent faced as a female slave and emphasizes the sexual harassment she experiences working in the home of Dr.Flint.
Harriet Jacobs was born a slave but “never knew it till six years of happy childhood had
passed away.”(Jacobs 1) when Jacobs was six, her mother died. Still her life was not difficult.
She moved into the home of her mother’s mistress – a kindheart