Essay on Harriet Jacobs autobiography "Incidents of a Slave girl". How was Linda's family affected by slavery? (PDF)

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,2, University of Frankfurt (Main), language: English, abstract: This essay on Harriet Jacobs autobiography "Incidents of a Slave girl" looks at how Linda Brent's family, who is the protagonist in the story, is affected by her life as a slave. Harriet Jacobs uses the pseudonym Linda Brent for herself in her autobiography written in 1861. Pseudonyms are also used throughout the narrative to describe the other characters in the book.

Linda's mistress, the daughter of her grandmothers mistress was nourished from Aunt Martha's (grandmother's) breast as well as Linda's mother. The young mistress was the foster sister of Linda, they spend their childhood together and played together as if they were normal siblings. By the age of six, from the talk around her Linda learns as a child that she is a slave. So when Linda gets older she has to serve her foster sister and the relationship changes. Linda in some cases at first grew up very privilidged compared to other slaves. By her mistress she is taught to read and to write. For those reasons Linda mentions that she tries not to be angry at her mistress when she dies and still leaves Linda in the status as a slave.