Style
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Style 1 key example

Key Examples in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Chapter Eight: What Slaves are Taught to Think of the North
Explanation and Analysis:

The book's style shuttles back and forth between confessional and didactic: Jacobs is not only telling her own story but also educating northern readers about the horrors that the institution of slavery visits on everyone it touches. For example, in Chapter 8, Jacobs describes the manipulative tactics enslavers use against those they enslave:

Slaveholders pride themselves upon being honorable men; but if you were to hear the enormous lies they tell their slaves, you would have small respect for their veracity. I have spoken plain English. Pardon me. I cannot use a milder term. When they visit the north, and return home, they tell their slaves of the runaways they have seen, and describe them to be in the most deplorable condition. A slaveholder once told me [...]