In the following essay, Dalton examines the "tensions between what [Jacobs literally states and metaphorically suggests about sexual exploitation," pointing to the parallels between the way in which Jacobs, through Linda Brent, describes her sexual exploitation and twentieth-century studies on the effects of molestation on girls and women. Dalton suggests that through her language and imagery, Jacobs implies that greater sexual abuses occurred in her life than what Brent reports.]

In the following essay, Carby explores the influence of the nineteenth-century conception of "true womanhood" on Incidents and contends that Jacobs used the events of her life to "critique conventional standards of female behavior and to question their relevance and applicability to the experience of black women."

In the following essay, Sherman pinpoints the source of the moral conflict and ambiguity in Incidents as the narrator's struggle with the exploitation and brutality of slavery and the idealized conception of "true womanhood." Furthermore, Sherman argues that the depiction of this conflict is the source of the work's strength.

In the following essay, Smith examines the implications of the literal and figurative "structures of confinement" in Incidents (such as the attic crawlspace in which Jacobs lived for seven years and which she describes as a "loophole of retreat"). Smith argues that such periods of "apparent enclosure" serve to empower Jacobs to manipulate her destiny.

In the following essay, Doherty examines Jacob's use of the conventions of the sentimental genre and describes the shortcomings of Incidents as a sentimental novel. Rather, he argues that Jacobs "ingeniously inducts 'women's literature' into the cause of women's politics."

In the following essay, Washington analyzes Jacobs's use of the sentimental domestic genre, noting that this was "a poor choice for her story," and emphasizes that Incidents reads more as a slave narrative than a sentimental novel, particularly in the way in which it transcends the boundaries of gender.

In the following seminal study, Yellin reveals the existence of a "cache of [Jacobs's letters" that attests to the authenticity of Incidents, establishes Jacobs as the author, and illuminates the editorial role of Lydia Maria Child. This discovery, Yellin emphasizes, transforms "a questionable slave narrative into a well-documented pseudonymous autobiography."]

In the following excerpt, Fox-Genovese explores the differences in tone and content between Incidents and other works of sentimental domestic literature.

In the introduction that accompanied Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl upon its publication in 1861, Child attests to the veracity and purpose of the text