What makes this autobiography so compelling is not just the language that Harriet Jacobs uses to tell her story, but the story itself. As the autobiography of a female slave, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl paints an often-unseen portrait of colonial life for both Jacobs and other slaves of the era.

The prose itself is typical of the time in which it was published, and so tends towards longer sentences that may lose readers that aren't used to the stylistic elements of older writing. However, the narrative itself is very solid, and Jacobs manages to recount, within her ability, the majority of her life and subsequent experiences.

This wasn't the first autobiography I've read, but it definitely gave me a new appreciation for the art of writing one, especially given the circumstances in which it was written.