Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Dover Thrift Editions)

Unexpectedly, most of this book is about a woman choosing to live in a very tight prison cell for years, in order eventually to escape slavery. The irony is thick, and powerfully telling. Who would go through such an ordeal, if the terror of what they had escaped weren’t even more unbearable? Though it must have been suspenseful for her to live through, the story of her own confinement—long, suffocating years hidden away—doesn’t carry the suspense of a thriller, since you know from the outset that she survives. But it still has a quiet tension. The strain of the ordeal isn’t in the specific details, which are actually pretty blurry. It’s in the waiting and isolation, stretched out beyond imagination. When Jacobs finally reaches freedom, the sense of relief isn’t so much about plot resolution as it is about the loosening of a weight that’s been pressing on every moment. It’s also a validation of her truly incredible endurance. In some sense, the book is too tied to Jacobs’ own singular story—an enslavement free of the physical tortures that others around her had to bear; an escape that wasn’t overly challenging, at least in its initial steps; a family of enslavers who won’t release her from bondage even when they truly can’t afford not to; children whose lives teeter right before her eyes on the edge between enslavement and freedom. Jacobs does often pause to point out how her experiences mirror those of others under slavery, and those moments are usually powerful. But still this is certainly her story, far unlike any other. It’s that thread of motherhood that gives the book most of its emotional weight. As I said, you know all along that Jacobs survives and gains her freedom. But what happens to her children isn’t so clear, and you’re always aware of her deep dread at the thought of them falling into enslavement. Every decision she makes seems to be weighed against their survival and safety. That anxiety doesn’t fade even in the moments of triumph, and it keeps the story grounded at a human level rather than in any abstract idea of freedom.

Wow! Just wow! This lady lead a horrible, exciting, terrible life! What a telling memoir!