In the following essay, Sorisio discusses the influence of Romanticism and Transcendentalism on the nineteenth-century's—and on Jacobs's—perception of "self," arguing that Linda Brent's sense of self encompasses both an individual and a collective identity. Additionally, Sorisio examines Jacobs's exploitation of sentimental conventions.

In the essay that follows, Mills studies the influence of Lydia Maria Child (abolitionist and editor of Incidents) on Jacobs's writing and on the book's structure and content.

In the following essay, Gwin examines the way in which the stereotypes and relationships of white and black women within the "slavocracy" of the South inform Jacobs's work. Gwin also demonstrates how Jacobs's narrative was influenced both by the conventions of the sentimental genre and by her white female audience, pointing out that the ideals of virtue and sensibility advanced by sentimental literature were incompatible with the experience of slave women.

In the following excerpt, Barbeito examines the impact of slavery and racial politics on "black female sexuality" as explored by Harriet Jacobs in her writings.