Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

By: Harriet Jacobs

Narrated by: Audio Élan

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography, written under the pseudonym Linda Brent, details her experiences as a slave in North Carolina, her escape to freedom in the north, and her ensuing struggles to free her children. The narrative was partly serialized in the New York Tribune, but was discontinued because Jacobs’ depictions of the sexual abuse of female slaves were considered too shocking. It was published in book form in 1861.

©1861 Public Domain (P)2012 Cherry Hill Publishing

Critic reviews

"In such volumes as this, the true romance of American life and history is to be found. Patient suffering, heroic daring, untiring zeal, perseverance seemingly unparalleled, and growth from surroundings of degradation and ignorance to education, refinement, and power: all find in these modest pages their simple, yet affecting narrative. It is the "oft told tale" of American slavery, in another and more revolting phase than that which is generally seen. More revolting because it is of the spirit and not the flesh. In this volume, a woman tells in words of fire, yet never overstepping the bounds of the truest purity, not, how she was scourged and maimed, but that far more terrible sufferings endured by and inflicted upon woman, by a system which legalizes concubinage, and offers a premium to licentiousness. No one can read these pages without a feeling of horror, and a stronger determination arising in them to tear down the cursed system which makes such records possible. Wrath, the fiery messenger which goes flaming from the roused soul and overthrows in its divine fury the accursed tyrannies of earth; will find in these pages new fuel for the fire, and new force for the storm which shall overthrow and sweep from existence American slavery." ( Weekly Anglo-African, New York, N.Y., 13 April 1861)

Amazing story or a strong womans fight freedom.

Loved hearing Linda's story. She is honest and real. Her fight for her childrens freedom is inspiring.

Tragic and true...

·The Wretched Of The Earth - Frantz Fanon

·Dark Light Consciousness: Melanin, Serpent Power, and the Luminous Matrix of Reality by Edward Bynum

·Blacked Out Through Whitewash: Exposing the Quantum Deception/Rediscovering and Recovering Suppressed Melanated by Suzar

·Christopher Columbus & the Afrikan Holocaust: Slavery & the Rise of European Capitalism by John Henrik Clarke

·They came before Columbus: The African Presence In Ancient America by Ivan Van Sertima

·Stolen Legacy: The Egyptian Origins of Western Philosophy by George G M James

·How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney

·The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism Within US Slave Culture by Vincent Woodard

·Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America by Cameron McWhirter

·Germany's black holocaust, 1890-1945 by Firpo W. Carr

·Superior: The Return of Race Science by Angela Saini

·The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

·The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave by Willie Lynch

·Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X Kendi

·White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

·The Man-Not: Race, Class, Genre, and the Dilemmas of Black Manhood by Tommy Curry

·They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie Jones-Rogers

·The Destruction of Black Civilization : Great Issues of a Race from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. by Chancellor Williams

·The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist

·Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon

·The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction by Daniel Brook

·Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino

·African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean
By Herbert S. Klein, Ben Vinson III

·The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

·John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights by David S. Reynolds

Captivating, earnest, heartwrenching, triumphant!

I trembled, screamed, yelled, cried, and cheered while listening to this NON-fake, darkly shameful, account. A former slave girl/woman enlightens us about the TRUE the history of America. Great narrator voice!

A valuable read!

This narrative brought to life the struggles and strength of our African American ancestors. Their struggles and strength to escape a cruel life in slavery. The beatings, murder and separation of family and friends as a means of control of the slave is abhorrent and the ramifications are still present today.

Accounts and Impact of a Diabolical Institution

Excellent eyewitness account of slavery. The author blends the social, economic, familial and even political impact of the diabolical business of selling and owning human beings.

Shocking!!

Excellent reading of a very sad and shocking autobiography of treatment of author and blacks!

Powerful Testimony

I happened across this book at the Birmingham African American Museum in 2015. I read the book in a matter of weeks. However, listening to this book on audio was much more powerful. This story will always stay with me as an African American woman.

Accent

A horrible accent is it southern or British? Please reread the book with another reader.

Gripping

Reading this is an emotional fight for sanity. To realize that as a save they had always been aware of the absence of freedom. This is a painful read. But we'll worth it.

Riveting peace of African American Literature

What made the experience of listening to Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl the most enjoyable?

I enjoyed the way that the narrator told the story, it made me feel as though I was experiencing the history of slavery in a whole new light of what I was taught and learned about slavery in High School and the Telemedia of today.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Linda Brent (Harriet Jacobs), because she endured so much hardship and pain at such young age; and prevailed to the very end of her freedom from the hand of slavery.

What does Audio Élan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The depth and the intensity of the story.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Yes, when Linda Brent stood her ground against Dr. Flint

Any additional comments?

I would recommend this novel to others.