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Incidents in the life of a slave girl outline time, alright..

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where the story of Harriet Jacobs took place Harry Jacobs was a slave born in

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North Carolina in 1813 she didn't know that she was a slave until she was six [Facts about Harriet Jacobs]

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years old and her mama died so at least she was spared knowing how truly awful

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her situation was even after learning her plight in life Harriet's mistress

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Margaret Horniblow was pretty cool she taught Harriet how to read and so they

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got along just like peas and carrots but since all good things must end [Margaret's gravestone appears]

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Margaret passed away when Harriet was 11... in her will Margaret gave Harriet to her

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niece remember slaves were considered personal property to their owners who

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was only three years old at the time awkward since baby niece Mary Norcom

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was still learning her ABCs and being potty trained, her dad Dr. James Norcom [Dr James appears with Harriet]

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became Harriet's master run Harriet run seriously if she had known what life was

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going to be like Harriet might have strapped on her Nikes and taken off into

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the sunset of course that wasn't really an option so she belonged to the nor [Harriet runs into James''s path]

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comes and had to hang out and do what they wanted her to do the next 17 years

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of Harriet's life sucked bad it wasn't bad enough being a slave Dr Norcom made

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Harriet his sex slave too..This began when Harriet was in her mid-teens and even

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though she came up with and executed a plan to stop Dr. Norcom's unwelcome

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advances he kept right on pursuing her Harriet found a friend and consensual

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partner and lawyer Samuel Treadwell Sawyer and they got down to the business [Harriet jumps on Samuel]

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of making babies Harriet thought this would make Norcom so mad that he'd sell

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her and the children she bore not so fast Harriet, Dr. Norcom wasn't happy

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about this baby making business but kept Harriet around anyway since she was his [Norcom orders Harriet into the house]

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slave, Norcom adopted the two young-uns as his own property too after all two

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more able-bodied youngsters make great plantation workers

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Harriet wasn't having it, Sawyer the lawyer purchased the kids and Harriet

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escaped but it wasn't exactly to freedom she found a hiding spot in a crawlspace [Harriet walking up the stairs]

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in her grandmother's house where she lived among rats and filth for the next

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seven years can you imagine seven years of confinement with only a Bible and

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some stray rodents to keep you company sounds like someone should write a book

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about this experience anywho Harriet chose the crawl space because she could

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keep an eye on her kids who were living there without the evil doctor Norcom [Harriet in the attic and kids playing]

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knowing where she was, nice going Harriet...in 1842 Harriet was able to hop aboard a

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boat headed north and sailed off to find true freedom friends in Philly took her

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in then she got worked as a nurse maid for some nice folks who treated her well

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Harriet even met up with her daughter Louisa, reunited and it feels so good [Harriet with Louisa]

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with the encouragement of friends Harriet decided to put her life story

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down on paper it wasn't easy but Harriet was able to make it happen incidents in

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the life of a slave girl hmm what does this title make you think about A) a

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bunch of parties a slave girl had during her lifetime. B) a very specific exact

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tale of one girl who lived through the horrors of slavery..C) any young woman

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who lived in slavery anywhere and at any time while none of these explanations

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might be spot on Jacobs chose this vague title to leave the story open to

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personal interpretation by the reader her audience was white Christian

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northern women's who upheld the cult of domesticity above all else Harriet knew

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these things were super important to the women around her so she shaped her book

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to focus on how slave women were denied the right to everything involved with [Statue of liberty discussing Harriet's book]

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the cult of womanhood slave women weren't allowed to access to Christian

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education a happy home or a right to raise a family like other women could

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Harriet also admitted that she used her sexuality as a way to gain her freedom [Dr Norcom sleeping]

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which was definitely not something that the members of the cult would get down

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with she also said the traditional ideals women were supposed to meet

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didn't make sense to apply them to slave women and she used her book to

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demonstrate just that we hyped up the incidents of life of a slave girl so

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much we just know you're itchin to read and talk about some specific passages so

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let's get to it... I had not lived 14 years in slavery for nothing I had felt seen and

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heard enough to read the characters and question the motives of those around me

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the war of my life had begun and the one of God's most powerless creatures I

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resolved never to be conquered... take a moment and let that one sink in okay

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moments over this quote comes from Chapter four we chose it because it [Norcom holding Harriet]

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shows the great maturity and bravery Linda / Harriet had to show even though

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she was barely a teenager most kids her age are playing video games and hanging [Boys playing on their smartphones]

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out at the mall not Harriet she's ready to take on the world the next passage we

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pick has to do with race... if God has the stowed beauty upon her it will prove her

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greatest curse that which commands admiration in the white woman only

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hastens the degradation of the female slave death was already almost

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preferable to what male slaves had to go through but women who were slaves got

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served with a double whammy slavery turns everything upside down even the [Harriet upside down on playground bars]

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value of being pretty beautiful slave girls are more likely to be victimized

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Harriet Jacobs did her best to show what real life was like for a woman born into

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slavery it wasn't always pretty but reporting on the truth seldom is...Next up

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let's examine a passage from the preface of incidents I do earnestly desire to

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arouse the women in the north to a realizing sense of the condition of two

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millions of women at the cell still in bondage suffering what I suffered and

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most of them far worse... any guesses on what theme we're talking about here

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Harriet opened her book by pleading with northern women her audience to listen to [Harriet protesting for people to listen to her story]

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her story she wanted him to feel it was one worth telling she might have caught

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their attention too if this little thing called a civil war hadn't happened as

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you probably remember the civil war began in 1861 right about the time

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Harriet's book was getting published nothing like an old war to put the

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kibosh....but since Harriet was not a quitter she joined the

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abolitionist movement and continued working to sell her book and fight [Harriet selling her book at a stall]

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injustice talk about multi-tasking we've got two more passages to check out so

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let's get to it this is a quote from chapter 10 and it's a toughy... I can

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testify from my own experience in observation that slavery makes the white

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fathers cruel and sensual the sun's violent and

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licentious it contaminates the daughter and makes the wives wretched...can you say

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dysfunctional family, in this short passage Harriet's talking family dynamic [Woman appears in a room and slips on a banana]

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because of slavery the otherwise average family is a total mess it seemed

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impossible for southern slave owners to understand how bad slavery was for

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everyone in Harriet's opinion there's no way for families to be normal and loving [Mary waving her arms in the air]

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as long as slavery exists this is one of the many reasons she fought to share her

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experience and end slavery all together she didn't curl up and cry about her [Harriet crying on the floor]

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hard life Harriet kept pushing for people to know the truth about slavery

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during the war incidents in the life of a slave girl slowly but surely gained

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traction abolitionists took notice and shared the book with others our final [People reading Harriet's book]

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passage up for examination is about friendship... one was a fair white child

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the other was her slave and also her sister when I saw them embracing each

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other and heard their joyous laughter I turned sadly away from the lovely sight

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I foresaw the inevitable blight that would fall on the little slaves heart I

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knew how soon her laughter would be changed to sighs, the fair child grew up

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to be a still fairer woman from childhood to womanhood her pathway was blooming

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with flowers and overarched by a sunny sky. Scarcely one day of her life had

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been clouded when the Sun rose on her happy Bridal morning... hold on one [Girl wipes tear from her eye]

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moment..This is another super sad passage from what

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we're figuring out is a really tragic book Harriet knows that the life of a

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slave girl is pretty much the worst thing ever and she feels terrible for

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the other slave girls who suffered just like she did which is another reason she

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felt like she had to write her book it wasn't Harriet Jacobs goal to be the

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first former slave woman to write and publish a full-length novel about being [People approach Harriet's stall]

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a slave but that's the lady we know and love her to be today she didn't get the

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credit she deserved in her lifetime but it's safe to say she lived a pretty

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decent free life while she could maybe now is the time to celebrate Harriet's

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accomplishments..[Statue of Harriet Jacobs]

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