Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (November 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486419312
• ISBN-13: 978-048641931

From Library Journal  
Published in 1861, this was one of the first personal narratives by a slave and one of the few written by a woman. Jacobs (1813-97) was a slave in North Carolina and suffered terribly, along with her family, at the hands of a ruthless owner. She made several failed attempts to escape before successfully making her way North, though it took years of hiding and slow progress. Eventually, she was reunited with her children. For all biography and history collections.

Aside from books about holocaust, crime scene investigation, and nonfiction religious books, slavery is another theme that I find myself attracted to read.  This book described vividly some of the atrocities and injustices slaves had suffered in the hands of slaveholders. While reading this book, I am much in gratitude that such kind of slavery is abolished.  I could feel the main character’s strong desire to obtain her freedom and of her children. Any person would sympathize with her agonies, as a mother, daughter, sister and as a woman. I can’t imagine myself living in that period.

I admired Jacobs, for her character and her determination to educate and improve herself in spite of her background. Her strong faith in God is also worth noting. You will in no wise ignore how her faith has led her through the most trying and heart-wretching moments of her life.

I’m not much knowledgable about slavery way back  in the 1800s, but by reading this book, I am glad that it is now a thing in the past and hope not to be repeated in the future.