Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jan 31, 2016 Eileen rated it really liked it

Shelves: recent-favorites

Based on its title and plot summary, I was expecting this book to read like a chronological journal detailing the rawest of realities of specific events in a simple, straightforward manner. Instead, I found this book to read as an eloquent, insightful, and moving memoir (albeit one of an unimaginably difficult life). Although some events in the author's narrative were quite detailed at times, at other times she exerted restraint in her descriptions so as to leave readers (mainly her noted audien Based on its title and plot summary, I was expecting this book to read like a chronological journal detailing the rawest of realities of specific events in a simple, straightforward manner. Instead, I found this book to read as an eloquent, insightful, and moving memoir (albeit one of an unimaginably difficult life). Although some events in the author's narrative were quite detailed at times, at other times she exerted restraint in her descriptions so as to leave readers (mainly her noted audience of potential sympathizers in the North) with the greater power of their own imaginations and with a willingness to reflect on such events, and potentially take action, rather than being halted by offense or disbelief from her account.

She went a step further by weaving the events she experienced into a larger tapestry that revealed the many facets of both the capacity for inhumanity and the capacity for strength in the face of it. In chapter after chapter, with each focusing on a particular topic/theme/event, the author relays the progression of her entire time as a slave. In so doing, she also conveys her ability to increasingly perceive the subtleties of the strategies and tactics of manipulation that were employed by her owner (and other owners generally) to exert their will while justifying their behavior. She also describes the responding thoughts and feelings of her own (and those of other slaves generally) at a depth that is truly palpable. Her ability to rise above her circumstances to recognize the overall methodology of slavery, coupled with her inherent self-confidence, gave her a sense of intellectual power in a world where her physical being was virtually powerless. That mental power then provided her with both the courage to strategically and subtly attempt to occasionally out-maneuver her owner in words or actions, and to continue to forge on with a sense of hope for the future.

The author's ability to intuitively understand and succinctly describe the conceptual dynamics in the relationship between slave owners and slaves, and her success in thoughtfully and beautifully telling her story in that context, made this book engaging, endearing, and informative. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading a woman's slave narrative.

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Nov 30, 2019 Linda C rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, memoir-biography, black-american

Harriet Jacobs wrote her autobiography under a pseudonym and changed the names of the people though purporting that all was true and could be proven, which it was. Her very early years were happy living with her mulatto mother and father, both slaves but he a successful carpenter and she able to read and write. When her parents die and then her mistress she is left to a young child in the home of a doctor. This doctor is the source of her troubles. He is obsessed with her and pursues her for sex ...more

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