Significance

Significance

Portrait of Harriet Jacobs

     Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl is a significant autobiography not only because it is the first slave narrative written by a female, but because of the style in which it was written. She wrote her autobiography as a slave narrative with major features of the domestic novel and sentimental text. Many of the previously written slave narratives, by men, focused on a male character and his struggles and longing for freedom (Stover 137). This created a more individualized story, while Jacobs wrote more about her family and community.

     By focusing her story on the points of family and community, Jacobs was able to combine her slave narrative with a domestic novel. Writing with the domestic novel style usually involves a more emotional appeal to the audience by portraying the struggles of womanhood. She is not necessarily trying to invoke an emotional response from her audience towards herself, but the slave community as a whole. Jacobs knew who her audience was and knew how to directly appeal to them.

     This is expressed in the preface as Jacobs states, “I have not written my experiences in order to attract attention to myself… But I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to… the condition of two millions of women, ” (281). She isn’t doing this so readers have pity for her, she is doing this for the purpose of enlightening white Northern women on what slavery really is. Jacobs is able to appeal  to this audience of Northern white women by pleading her case as a woman and mother, attempting to unite all women in a bid for abolition (Emsley 146).

     Jacobs wrote about her struggles for freedom using the name Linda Brent. Linda, before she finally runs away, begins to think about the effects that her actions may have on her children. Jacobs explains, “and if I failed, O what would become of me and my poor children? They would be made to suffer for my fault,” (296). In other slave narratives, this awareness of family ties and community is not present. By including this motherly concern Jacobs was able to further her connection with her audience, the white Northern women.

     Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl was an innovative type of slave narrative. It combined the basic aspects of a slave narrative with the writing style of a domestic novel to effectively appeal to Jacobs’ intended audience. Harriet Jacobs writes with this domestic novel style to generate common ground between her and her audience in an attempt to transmit her political message (Emsley 160). Jacobs was able to use her status as a woman and a mother to relate to her audience. By relating to her audience, she is able to more effectively inspire her audience.