Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Literary Response

Steve Epting
AP English
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Literary Response
In the story, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author Harriet Jacobs shows that the slave girl’s family was very hard working. Her father was a skilled mechanic, her grandmother was a household slave that took care of her mistress and also did midnight baking to help fund her business, and her mother was a hard worker as well, even though she died when her daughter was six. Also, the author shows a contrast in the two slave houses that the slave girl is in. She shows that one slave house is better than the other.
When the story opens, the slave girl starts to talk about the different jobs that her family members did in order to earn pay. Both the grandmother and the father have the same idea while working. The idea is for them to earn and save enough money to buy their children back because they were all separated. “The business proved profitable; and each year she laid by a little, which saved for a fund to purchase her children.” It was often hard for them to save enough money because, their masters or mistresses asked for loans and the slaves trusted them enough to give them the money they asked for.
There was also a contrast in between the two homes that the slave girl was in. In her first home, her mistress loved her unconditionally. The slave girl did anything that her mistress asked her to do. The mistress treated her so well because she promised the slave girl’s mother that they would never suffer for anything. The mistress taught the slave girl how to read, spell, and she taught her the precepts of God’s Word. The mistress’s main teaching, to the slave girl, was “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The slave girl was faithful to the mistress, but the story gave an opposing quote to that; “But alas! We all know that the memory of a faithful slave does not avail much to save her children from the auction block.”
After the mistress dies, the slave girl was sent to another house. This house was very different in terms of morals and how they operated with slaves. When the slave girl got to the new house, she says that the family gave her cold looks, cold words, and cold treatment. The slave girl was not used to this harsh treatment. She had bad news when she got to the new house as well. She finds out that her father has died. Also, the family has views that teaching a slave child to feel like they are a human being is blasphemous doctrine.
In conclusion, the author shows that the slave girl’s family is hard working and the author also shows the contrast between the two slave houses. This story is appealing to ethos, and the author is showing the feelings of the slave girl. “We shall have to stay here all our days; we shall never be free.”