Incidents Blog Post 4

For the last blog post on Harriet Jacobs’ book “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” I would like to touch the concept of mental/ sexual abuse. This is a topic that is discussed a lot throughout the book because it is a major part of how slaves were abused and mistreated. Now the reason why I have decided to talk about both mental and physical abuse in the same post is because I think the both of them are very closely related. Sexual abuse is a major cause of mental pain which we get to witness through the experiences of Harriet Jacobs. In the following quote she explains the time when she was sexually abused by her master, Dr. Flint: “And now, reader, I come to a period in my unhappy life, which I would gladly forget If I could…For years my master had done his utmost to pollute my mind with foul images, and to destroy the pure principles inculcated by my grandmother, and the good mistress of my childhood” (Jacobs 54). The description Harriet Jacobs gives us implies her suffering and torment caused because of Dr. Flint’s abuse. The suffering she goes through is mostly mental. In the given quote she states that Dr. Flint tried to “pollute” her mind. Being held against one’s will and having their way with one, will of course cause some sort of mental distress. Just the bare thought of the event would cause one an uncomfortable feeling. The pain Jacobs must have gone through cannot be emphasized enough and cannot be described in a way to make the reader understand just how bad it was. If I could ask Jacobs a few questions they would be: How was your experience post-abuse? What were the effects of the abuse on you? How long did they stay with you? I feel the answers to these questions would give us a better understanding of her pain, unlike the book, which does not stress her pain to the reader enough.