Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: New Critical Essays (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture) [Paperback]

Deborah M. Garfield (Editor), Rafia Zafar (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521497795 | ISBN-13: 978-0521497794 | Publication Date: February 23, 1996

Harriet Jacobs, today perhaps the single most read and studied Black American woman of the nineteenth century, has not until recently enjoyed sustained, scholarly analysis. This anthology presents a far-ranging compendium of literary and cultural scholarship that will take its place as the primary resource for students and teachers of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The contributors include both established Jacobs scholars and emerging critics; the essays take on a variety of subjects in Incidents, treating representation, gender, resistance, and spirituality from differing angles.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This volume of essays, the first collection of its kind, is convincing testimony for the inclusion of Jacob's narrative in the American canon." Nineteenth-Century Literature

Book Description

Currently perhaps the single most read and studied Black American woman of the nineteenth century, Harriet Jacobs has not until recently enjoyed sustained, scholarly analysis. This anthology presents a far-ranging compendium of literary and cultural scholarship for students and teachers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (February 23, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521497795
• ISBN-13: 978-0521497794
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,319,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How dear is your freedom?, January 4, 2007

By 

Maddalena "la_maddalena" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: New Critical Essays (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture) (Paperback)

This was a great read. The author takes us back to her innocent and fairly comfortable childhood and then surveys her own life. Her family is painted with bright brushes, you get to know them as they are beaten, whipped, run away, or die. The amount of indignity man heaps on his fellow human beings is almost too much, but Harriet's clarity helps you to understand the motivation of most of the players. Harriet's Journal clearly depicts just how the barbarism of slavery not only destroys the lives of the slaves, but of the slave owners.
Harriet manages to get free, but at what a cost! This book is a real page turner. I could not put it down.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rare first hand account of slavery, December 16, 2006

By 

Michael A Neulander "Political Philosophy" (VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: New Critical Essays (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture) (Paperback)

Harriet Jacobs book Life of a Slave Girl is a unique piece of slave literature directly from the pen of an articulate slave. One gets a sense of the poignant way she can retell the story of her enslavement from a passage she writes in the preface of her book.

". . . I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a
realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South,
still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse.
I want to add my testimony to that of abler pens to convince the people
of the Free States what Slavery really is. Only by experience can any
one realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that pit of abominations."

Her story raises emotions of sentiment for a mother struggling to hold her family together, and it shines a light on the cruelties of slavery. The political sentiment at the time among the elites in the northern states was increasingly becoming antislavery. The political aspect of Jacob's writing is not that of the highly stylized writings of famous abolitionists or of eminent blacks such as Frederick Douglass using reason and religion to condemn slavery. Jacob's writing is visceral and down to earth. Her powerful argument against slavery pulls at the heartstrings of any sympathetic decent human being. In essence, Jacob's story is one that resonates with people of all socio-economic backgrounds. It is no mystery why the hearts and minds of people are stirred to action after one reads Jacob's disturbing accounts of sexual depravity, mental anguish, and the destruction of the family unit, that she endured as a slave. Her first person narrative account is what makes her book such a strong force of political sentiment in the genre of slave narrative. Since there were so few slave narratives in circulation at the time, it was easy for Jacob's book to engender such strong political sentimentality.

Jacob's ability to arouse aesthetic sentimentality in her audience was a bit tricky, because of the sexual decisions she had to make in her life. Deciding to have an elicit sexual relationship with an unmarried white neighbor to escape the depraved advances of her owner could be construed as Jacob's being more interested in autonomy and less interested in chastity. Jacob has made it clear to her audience that it was her station in life that caused her to make what her white readers would consider an unconventional choice. Jacob's plight as a slave caused her to choose freedom over trying to protect her chastity more strenuously. Since slavery took away almost all of her freedom and individuality, she was willing to trade her chastity for the freedom of choice. Jacob's virginity was one of the few things she possessed that she was able to withhold from her owner. After going into detail for why she made her choice she still felt it was necessary to apologize to her "Victoria" audience for her decision. This act on her part was truly one of the few choices she had the ability to make while in slavery's bondage. Thus, once Jacob's white audience understood the dreadfully marginal position she occupied in society, most of them would feel compassion for her. This would make her audience more inclined to accept the choice she felt was necessary to make for her own well-being. Jacob's decision over who she would give her sexual being to, was he only way of holding onto some semblance of individuality.

This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and literature.