The book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs is usually seen as a sentimental novel about a narrative of a female slave. Many readers have also noticed that Jacobs’ story has been weakened by several conflicts in the book. In Jacobs’s words, “slavery is terrible for men but it is far more terrible for women (120).” Reproduction is one primary purpose of female slaves. Linda, as one among many female slaves, may have limited choices, if any and most of it can be seen as decisions of the weak but the Jacobs, the author creates a new meaning for heroism using her protagonist in a gender-constrained world.
Making a real choice in a gender-constrained world
In the book, Linda was being harassed by Dr. Flint’s sexual advances. Linda grew up with the knowledge of the genteel code for women during that time. A woman’s virginity is essential in determining her self-worth and moral integrity (Sherman, 172). However, she also realizes that she is a slave and she has limited choices so instead of accepting the advances of Dr. Flint, she took a free white man, Mr. Sands, as a lover. This may be in conflict of the code she grew up with and besides that, it also invite the wrath of her master but as quoted in the text “it seems less degrading to give one's self, than to submit to compulsion (Jacobs, 55).”
Even though it violates the code she grew up with, at least the choice was made her. She succumbed to physical intimacies with a man before marriage but she did not do so because she was forced to, she did it because she chose to. This may not give her the moral integrity that physical virginity is associated but her moral integrity now stems from exercising the moral right to choose (Sherman, 172).
Wasn’t it heroic that being a slave without a choice, she pursues the moral exercise of deciding? She may have limited choices but she used her options to the best advantage possible. The protagonist, Linda, mentions that if she cannot choose the one she’ll marry, at least she can choose the one she will reproduce with. She does not make excuses for her actions or decisions but takes it with full responsibility.
Struggling for freedom
In the story, Linda gives birth to two children by Mr. Sands. This irks Dr. Flint but his harassment still does not end. He even threatened to bring her children to the plantation where Linda hides in the attic of her grandmother for seven years to avoid Dr. Flint’s advances. Her hiding reminds readers of many heroes who lack the means to confront an oppressive power directly; because of this they search for other ways to preserve their integrity and lives (Lockard & Penglu, 5). This is a reminder of other heroes who were not able to exercise the freedom of living and speaking openly.
Linda struggled to preserve two things: her family and her self-integrity. Her family comprised of her two children. She may be a reluctant mother but she is a devoted mother nevertheless. She also struggles to preserve her own integrity where she may lose respect of herself if she stops resisting Dr. Flint’s advances.
She flees the plantation and escapes. She also retrieved her two children. She may not be “legally” free as she is still tied to her master but she has now escaped him and his sexual advances. In her hiding, she took full responsibility of her situation where she told the people sheltering and helping her that she is a mother but not a wife. She met a woman who was able to buy her freedom because of gratefulness to her. She was free and her children are free.
Heroism in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Jacobs puts forth a heroic trajectory using her protagonist through several of her traits that characterize heroes such as determination, radicalism, moral integrity, self-responsibility, among others. She was in a situation where many heroes were. Linda was under the oppression of her master and of society. She was facing an existential threat where death was the only option open for her escape. She did not choose death, however. She chose to live and fight for her freedom and attaining it in the end for herself and for her children.
Works Cited
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. Print.
Lockard, Joe, and Shih Penglu. Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Arizona: Antislavery Literature Project, 2011. Print.
Sherman, Sarah. " Moral Experience in Harriet Jacobs's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." NWSA Journal 2.2 (1990): 167-185. Web. 20 Jul. 2012.
