Book {Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl}

Just so you know what to expect this month, this is the photo challenge I'm doing.

I found it on Pinterest, but the site it came from is here.  I really like these prompts, for the most part.  (See below.)  They are a little bit different than things that I typically see on these things.

Today's prompt is "hands", which is one of my least favorite prompts.  Ever.  Don't ask me why.  I might get to it later on in the day, but for now I've decided to skip it and instead give you the book review that is over two weeks past due.

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I've had a hard time trying to write the review for Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs.  Slavery is such a sensitive subject, such a dark and evil time in our country's history that it's hard to put into cohesive thought my feelings about it and about the book.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave girl is a true account of slavery written by Harriet Jacobs who was born a slave in 1813 in Edenton, North Carolina.  It is written incredibly well, by any standards.  Her story, her life, seems almost too incredible to be true, which is perhaps why there are statements by those in her life and factual references added to the edition of the book I have, to verify that things truly did happen that way.  

Comparatively speaking, Harriet (or Linda, as she goes by in her account) was a "fortunate" slave, meaning that she worked in a home instead of in the fields.  Her owner was obsessed with her (which wasn't so fortunate) and, by his standards, he treated her well, which means he didn't hit her or "punish" her by torture.  He tried to seduce her, but Harriet was a strong woman, taught by her even stronger grandmother that her virtue was of utmost worth so she avoided and evaded his advances at every turn, which made him very angry, of course.  His wife was jealous of the attention her husband was giving to a slave, so she was particularly cruel to Harriet.  

Harriet eventually attempts to run away, with the hopes of facilitating the freedom of her two children (fathered by a white man who would eventually become a senator).  Escaping slavery was a dangerous endeavor as there were bounty hunters everywhere including in the free states and it took a lot of cunning to escape them.  Harriet, in order to convince her master that she had successfully fled to the free states, hid for 7 years in the tiniest space in her Grandmother's house.  There wasn't room for her to stand, there wasn't any light except for three small holes she was able to drill in the wall and the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter nearly killed her.  She stayed there for SEVEN years.  It is unfathomable to me.  

Eventually an opportunity to make a run for it comes up and she hides in a ship bound for the north.  She makes it there, finds paying work and is eventually able to get her children to her.  Her master still searches for her, but in the end her employer buys her from him and grants her her freedom.  Her daughter was able to attend a boarding school where, when they discovered she was a slave, they championed her and were able to get her her freedom as well.  Harriet's son made it to California with her brother and found work there.

This is, of course, a very brief synopsis of the book.  Besides telling her life, Harriet describes the atrocities that befell slaves on a regular basis.  She tells of the story of one young man who tried to make a run for it, was caught and brought back to his master.  His master throws him in a cotton gin, feeding him only bread and water if he's lucky.  After a few days they notice that the bread had been eaten but the water was left untouched.  A day or two later they open up the gin and discover that the boy had died and that rats had been eating his body.  Another slave was regularly scourged by his owner and when his owner became too ill and weak to do the scourging, he made the slave scourge himself.  Slaves were regularly whipped and beaten until their skin hung off them in ragged pieces, they were then brined to save their life so that they could be returned to work or tortured even further at a later date.  Incredibly horrifying.  

I'm grateful to have read this book.  It was hard to read at times, but it was a good reminder of where our country used to be.  And Harriet Jacobs was such an incredible woman, willing to sacrifice herself for her children even in the face of the worst atrocities.  She spoke with clarity and understanding.  She seemed to sum up slavery in this way:

"It seemed horrible to sit or lie in a cramped position day after day, without one gleam of light.  Yet I would have chosen this, rather than my lot as a slave, though white people considered it an easy one; and it was so compared with the fate of others.  I was never cruelly over-worked; I was never lacerated with the whip from head to foot; I was never so beaten and bruised that I could not turn from one side to the other; I never had my heel-strings cut to prevent my running away; I was never chained to a log and forced to drag it about, while I toiled in the fields from morning till night; I was never branded with hot iron, or torn by bloodhounds.  On the contrary, I had always been kindly treated, and tenderly cared for until I came into the hands of Dr. Flint.  I had never wished for freedom till then. But though my life in slavery was comparatively devoid of hardships, God pity the woman who is compelled to lead such a life!"

I recommend this book to everyone.  Everyone.  Be grateful for the life you have, for the freedoms you enjoy, because it wasn't so long ago that many of our brothers and sisters where treated worse than the lowliest of creatures.