Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful narrative
Review: This is the autobiography of Harriet Jacobs, who was born into slavery. In her youth, she had a good master and mistress and was treated well and taught to read. But when her mistress died, she was passed on to the daughter as an inheritance and the daughter married an older man who was as evil as most of the other slave holders. She witnessed his cruelty first-hand, and when she reached puberty, he decided to "have" her and sire a new "stock" of slaves through her. She avoided his advances. Having been taught Christianity and moral values, she did not want to spoil herself. Finally, to avoid him, she allowed herself to be impregnated by a kindly neighboring slave holder who at least treated her decent. Her master, enraged, became obsessed with controlling her. He refused to sell her or her children to anyone for any price, as he knew that her friends would gladly purchase her for the purpose of freeing her. Finally, she ran away, but couldn't escape the slave hunters in the area, so she hid in the attic space of her grandmother's shed, a dark hole only 6 feet long and 3 feet high at the pitch, and stayed there for six years awaiting her chance to escape. This book is a fascinating, first-hand look at what it was like to be a slave. It also brought home to me the fact that even though we have come a long way as a society, this kind of evil still exists. We no longer have slavery, but we certainly have an over-abundance of people who want to control and abuse and denigrate. The same attitudes that existed with the slave holders still exist today. People who think that they are superior to someone else for whatever reason--race, religion, financial circumstance, background, clothing, education--you name it, someone is bigoted against it. And the evil of trying to control each other is just as bad. We have a proliferation of people who rape, beat, abuse, and molest people who are weaker than they are. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Although I was aware of the kinds of things that happened in slavery, this book presented someone's first-hand experience with it, and I cheered our heroine on as she plotted and planned to acquire her freedom.
Rating: 
Summary: simple and straightforward
Review: What I particularly like about this book is how easy it is to read through. The southern vernacular dialect is sparse and not used by Harriet/Linda in the book. Further, the retelling of the horrors of slavery are not overdramatized -- it's not necessary to get the reader's attention. The everyday nature of these attocities are evident in the straightforward reporting of the events.
The dynamics of the household are fascinating when you read of the jealous mistresses who are infuriated at their husbands' infidelities under their roofs and how they mistreat the slave women who are subjected to their husband's unwelcomed advances.
Harriet's Grandmother is a remarkable woman of her day -- she became free and through hard work bought many of her own family members. She was a highly respected member of the community lending money to whites and blacks alike.
Survival and freedom for herself and her children is Harriet's objective and her unyielding determination is inspiring.
This story tells how difficult it was to be a woman in the south and particularly an attractive woman in slavery
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