—Anonymous
The horrific doings of slaveholders to slaves are sad and overall heartbreaking; I cannot fathom what Harriet Jacobs went through. Being born a slave and not knowing what that truly meant until the age of six, the longing days never knowing when it will all end or if it will end. It truly maddens me; this is her story she decided to make it public not to bring her sympathy but bring to light what it was like to be a slave and help build the antislavery movement and save others from suffering a similar fate. This text spoke to me in many ways that I had to stop reading and process her experiences. On many occasions, I would say to myself, how can anybody do this? The trials of girlhood talk about what young girls went through at the hand of their masters. It talks about what slavery expected of her as well as all the women in bondage. The fifteenth year is “a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl,” women that grow up as slaves become “prematurely knowing in evil things.” Women who want to protect their innocence are prevented from doing so like Linda herself. We learn what she had to go through to protect herself from her master. Her actions were done because of the situation slavery had imposed on her. Overall this is an excellent book to read because it gives us her perspective a first-hand account about her life and being born a slave. Jacobs’s life story was also enlightening to read, before reading incidents, I was aware of the perils of slavery however this book described it so vividly that I genuinely didn’t know what slavery was well not to this extent. I’m stunned by what Linda went through the constant heartbreak and the unimaginable pain many in bondage faced because of slavery.
