Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Description

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl – A Masterpiece by Harriet Jacobs

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a detailed, in-depth account of what the life of slaves was really like in the 19th century American South. The autobiographic novel was published in 1861 and brought the writer almost instant success. It lost attention for some time during the Civil War, but after the war it was rediscovered and was considered to be one of the most important pieces of writing about human rights in general, more particularly about women’s rights, especially after the shift in focus towards women’s rights of the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is one of the most important works not only in Afro-American writing, but also in women’s writing and universal literature. The painfully detailed account takes the reader to the world of the 19th century South. The book presents the life of a slave girl and of slave women in general in an emotional, yet almost naturalistic style. The reader is stunned by the suffering these girls and women had to endure and not only in terms of hard work. The women working on plantations had to endure cruelty, torture and sexual abuse and the novel describes all these in a very vivid, personal style. Naturalism and emotions mingle in such perfect harmony that the book closes with two testimonials of authenticity and accuracy – one by Amy Post, a white abolitionist activist and George W. Lowther, an anti-slavery writer, making this great novel by Harriet Jacobs a true account of immense historiographical value.
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