"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl"

In reading this chapter of, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs, we learn about her living situations and the reasons behind it. She tells us that she lives in an attic in her grandmother's house that is 9 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 3 feet tall (at the tallest point). We can truly see how uncomfortable this must have been when she says, "the slope [of the ceiling] was so sudden that I could not turn on my other side without hitting the roof" (106). Another consequence of living in the attic is that she is truly subject to the elements. She talks about the long, hot summers, the cool fall, and the horrible winters. She says that, "with all of [her] precautions, [her] shoulders and feet were frostbitten" (109). Although, something happens mid-way through the chapter that helps illuminate her situation, literally and figuratively. Jacobs creates a small opening in the wall so she can see out and get some light. This creates more for her to do and see. She begins to read with the little light that she has and gets to look at her children when they are outside. Along with that, she also overhears conversations between slave hunters and other people walking past the house. There was one conversation in particular that changed how I saw her situation completely. At the beginning of the reading, I had assumed that she was put in there by her master for torture, but I was corrected when I learned that she went in there willingly. I did not realize this until she said that, "The opinion [of where she was] was often expressed that I was in the Free States" (109). This made me realize that no one knew where she was, including the people of the town, her master, and her children. Overall, I found this reading very interesting, sad, and hard to process. The fact that she had to hide from her children, to protect herself is something I had not even thought about. In Frederick Douglass we talked a lot about the theme of separation and how apparent it was in his story and the lives of many slaves. I think these stories are similar in the fact that both Jacobs and Douglass had to deal with separation from their families.