Incidents In The Life An Slavegirl

Incidents in the life of a slave girl

Task:

1) Give a characterization of Dr. Flint and his relationship with Linda (Harriet Jacobs). Find at least 3 examples in the text.

2) What are the important points of chapter VIII about the reasons for slavery, and what are her objections?

3) Why does Harriet Jacobs want to flee, and what finally makes the flight possible?

1. Dr. Flint is her master, and she is inferior to him. He can do whatever he wants with her and Linda cannot protest against it; he can have her killed, or send to jail if she disobeys.

He has a sexual relationship with Linda. It does not say exactly that he has, but you can read it between the lines.

3 examples from the text:

1. But I now entered on my fifteenth year--a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl. My master began to whisper foul words in my ear.

2. But he was my master. I was compelled to live under the same roof with him--where I saw a man forty years my senior daily violating the most sacred commandments of nature. He told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all things.

3. If God has bestowed beauty upon her, it will prove her greatest curse. That which commands admiration in the white woman only hastens the degradation of the female slave.

2. One of the reasons for slavery is that slaves usually do not get any kind of teaching from their masters. The slaves believes many of the lies their masters tell them, and they do not think that slavery is worth while exchanging for freedom, if it is so hard to be free. Harriet Jacobs was lucky in that way, because she knew how to write and read.

Harriet