Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Summary
Harriet Ann Jacobs

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Summary

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl carries the reader through the events of one woman's birth into slavery, her sufferings under that institution, and the manner in which she is eventually able to free herself and her family from bondage and create a new life in the North.

Through the pseudonym Linda Brent, the author, Harriet Jacobs, begins her story by telling us about her unusually (for a slave) happy childhood, which comes to an abrupt end as the deaths of her mother, father and a kind first mistress leave her an orphan and the helpless property of Dr. Flint.

Linda manages to adjust to life with the Flints, largely due to her maternal grandmother, who has been freed from slavery and offers whatever support she can to her orphaned slave grandchildren. However, as Linda approaches maturity, she becomes the object of her master's lecherous advances. ... View more of the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Summary