This book chronicles most of the life of a young woman, Linda, born into slavery. Linda is a mulatto girl who works for a doctor and his family. By the standards of the time for slaves, she leads a fairly comfortable life. This changes, however, once her master begins to take an "interest" in her. The story follows her becoming a mother, living in hiding for several years and then her experience as a black woman living in the North after her escape, where she found life to be less than idyllic.
I thought this book was well written and of course the herione was strong and likeable. She really captured the essence of being a female slave. The gut-wrenching experiences these women went through, from sexual exploitation at an early age to having their children literally torn from them and sold like livestock. Jacobs also gives back stories on most of the other slaves in the book, which really gave me a feel for the time and place. I think she was striving to give all slaves a voice, and she succeeded at doing that.