In Chapter 20, Jacobs describes waiting in Snaky Swamp for Uncle Phillip to prepare a new hiding place for her. She uses imagery to describe the horrifying experience she had there:
As evening approached, the number of snakes increased so much that we were continually obliged to thrash them with sticks to keep them from crawling over us. The bamboos were so high and so thick that it was impossible to see beyond a very short distance. [...] It was not long before we heard the paddle of oars, and the low whistle, which had been agreed upon as a signal. [...]I passed a wretched night; for the heat of the swamp, the mosquitos, and the constant terror of snakes, had brought on a burning fever.
Jacobs emphasizes the sound, sight, and feel of being surrounded by snakes and thick bamboo, and of being bitten by mosquitos while a fever builds. The way this passage asks the reader to imagine the physical discomfort and even horror of one night on the run from enslavers emphasizes the brutal conditions under which enslaved people live. The imagery helps combat the idea that an enslaved person could easily run away. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 especially popularized the idea that enslaved people were running away (or "stealing" themselves) in great numbers, and that the people who were suffering were the enslavers who had lost their "property." This passage counters this propaganda by prompting Northern readers to imagine the bodily suffering enslaved people experienced when they tried to escape. It would be more difficult for readers who had read this passage to conclude that enslavers had it worse.
The imagery also emphasizes the ways in which enslaved people's bodies were bound by circumstance and environmental factors, even if they were not always restrained with chains or rope. The environment of the southern United States is such that it can be very dangerous to travel on foot without resources or protective gear. Enslavers benefited from this harsh environment, which was a natural deterrent to escape. The sensory imagery Jacobs uses underscores the fact that the very environment has a tight grip on her body, trying to keep her within Dr. Flint's reach. In Chapter 4, Grandmother, Philip, and Linda celebrated their family's ability to buy Philip out of enslavement. They agreed that it was possible for enslaved people with a strong enough will to free themselves. This passage complicates that earlier conclusion by emphasizing how the entire world seems to be engineered to keep enslaved people where they are.
In Chapter 30, Linda is finally escaping to the North, where slavery is illegal (although there are major loopholes through which the institution extends its reach there). She uses imagery drawing on all the senses to describe the experience of sailing into Chesapeake Bay:
I shall never forget that night. The balmy air of spring was so refreshing! And how shall I describe my sensations when we were fairly sailing on Chesapeake Bay? O, the beautiful sunshine! the exhilarating breeze! and I could enjoy them without fear or restraint. I had never realized what grand things air and sunlight are till I had been deprived of them.
Linda evokes the sight of the bright sun as well as the feel, sound, and scent of "balmy air" and "exhilarating breeze." She even calls the spring air "refreshing," as though she is drinking in the humidity like a cup of water. All of her senses are on and alive to the possibilities that await her in the North. She comments that she can "enjoy [these sensations] without fear or restraint," and she contrasts the free use of her senses with the sensory deprivation she experienced when hiding in multiple cramped locations for years on end. For Linda, her sensory experience in this scene is heightened by the fact that she knows what it is like to have her senses stifled. For the reader, the opposite is true: by asking the reader first to imagine the vivid sensory experience, she is then able to drive home how much of the world she lost in her years of concealment.
The imagery also emphasizes the total transformation in a Black American's life that can be made possible through escape to the North. Chesapeake Bay separates the part of the country where the institution of slavery was legal in the 19th century from the part of the country where it was illegal. Passing into "free" territory is a full-body experience for Linda. The imagery in this passage suggests that her senses all come rushing back to her, almost like a resurrection. Linda feels the promise not only of her own freedom, but also of a reunion with her children. As she will find, the North cannot deliver fully on the promise of freedom. For instance, despite her lifelong commitment not to buy her freedom, she eventually allows a Northern white woman to buy her freedom for her because she is simply not safe otherwise, even in the North. Still, Jacobs uses this intense imagery to suggest that emancipation can be a kind of resurrection. There is the sense that, were abolition to take place in the entire country, Black Americans in the South could experience the same sensory awakening without going anywhere.
