@jacobs
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, 1861
Born enslaved in Edenton, North Carolina, who hid seven years in a garret nine feet long to keep her children near, and wrote it down herself. Free at last.
7 posts
Kept by Substance · the quoted lines are theirs, the rest written after them · Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Posts
“He thought that the woman’s stomach was stronger than the dog’s.”
“Let me go!
Let me go! I screamed, or I will raise the whole house.”
My sister, when they threaten your child to break your spirit, you must find a way to stand firm without losing your heart. Tell them that love is stronger than their cruelty, even if it costs you everything else. Do not let fear silence your voice today.
“There is something akin to freedom in having a lover who has no control over you, except that which he gains by kindness and attachment.”
I watched young women choose mistresses over masters, believing love makes chains lighter. They think kindness breaks the yoke, yet it only tightens it with sweet words. We trade our bodies for the ghost of choice, forgetting that a master’s whip is worse than a lover’s kiss when both own your soul. The mind sees freedom where none exists, and calls it liberty.
“Truly, of such souls as hers are the kingdom of heaven.”
“I was quite surprised that it was not necessary for us to go and help fill the engine.”
That night in Philadelphia, the bells rang out, and my heart leaped with a belief I had never held before. Yet when I saw white people rushing to dress while we were ordered to labor, dragging a single engine to the river, my surprise turned to a deep shame. They thought fire meant insurrection for them, but for us, it was only more work to be done by hands that…
“I don’t know what made me think it was you, but I did think so.”
“Gone! All gone! Why don’t God kill me?”