"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl"

Interesting read. Questionable though. Somewhat in the same way the Socrates' actual existence is questionable, but with big differences. Did Harriet Jacobs really exist? Almost certainly but, Child's says that she "revised" the work in order to shorten it and to make it more orderly. This is probably true but to what extent i guess should be the question. It certainly has the tone of someone more educated although it is told from the first person as Harriet herself.
The whole story is a plea, and a good one, for all northerner women (and men i suppose as well) to be as appalled at this story and realize fully what it means to be a slave, to realize the depths of degradation slaves are put through. The author (or revisionist) is careful to talk about the southerners as though they are a different race or breed altogether while the Reader (whoever that may be) can rest assure, for they are wise and can see what horrible things are being done. They are also brought to the point that they are able to do something about it.
We see through the story, a tale of a young girl who realizes she is slave and endures hardships under the watchful eyes of a terrible master and jealous mistress. Who falls in love but is torn from this dream of happiness. Who has a white man fall for her but who is unable to pry her away and who has a brother who escapes after being put in prison for trying to escape. She has a grandmother who is well respected and trusts wholly in God and the bible even amidst all the terrible things happening. The girl also has a child which inspires terrible things against her.
Even though this girl endured all of this and manages to survive, we see that she is made out to be completely powerless the whole time. Every thing that happens is beyond her control and she does nothing to combat it other than feel hopeless. I think this was a ploy of the "revisionist" who possibly sought to make these poor slave girls out to be completely hopeless, which means that the northerners Must rise to help, because they cannot possibly help themselves although i'm not sure because slavery would feel like a pretty hopeless situation so now i'm not as sure. It feels frustrating to think and read about it, but this is how you should feel. Then your more likely to do something about it. Heaven forbid I should feel bad because of inactivity (which i say tongue-in-cheek but it's actually true, i hate feeling bad because of something i'm not doing and it does make me want to make a difference so it's pretty smart if that was the ploy, but whether it was or wasn't the piece is still a good one about the horrors of human slavery).