Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Joanne M. Braxton (Essay Date Summer 1986)

SOURCE: Braxton, Joanne M. "Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: The Re-Definition of the Slave Narrative Genre." The Massachusetts Review 27, no. 2 (summer 1986): 379-87.

In the following essay, Braxton explores the impact of Jacobs's slave narrative on the male-dominated genre.

"Rise up, ye women that are at ease! Hear my voice, ye careless daughters! Give ear unto my speech."

Isaiah, XXX, original epigram from Incidents in the
Life of a Slave Girl

"READER, be assured this narrative is no fiction." Preface by the Author,

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

I believe, with James Olney, that students of autobiography are themselves vicarious autobiographers, and I know that I read every text through my own experience, as well as that...