Chapters 1-9, Incidents In the Life of a Slavegirl

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. “
George Santayana
We must always know history as truth to prevent its repeating. As I was reading chapters 1-9 I thought to myself that if most men and women were cruel to their slaves then, would most of us here and now be malicious to our slaves if we had them today? The concept seems so impossible, so sick and wrong, but I believe the answer to this question is yes. “I do not say there are no humane slaveholders…But they are “like angels’ visits-few and far between.”” P 44 We advance in our knowledge of failure. Slavery is one huge failure of the United States of America. We failed both the white and black race in its institution. Linda/Harriet Jacobs says, “I can testify, from my own experience and observation, that slavery is a curse to the whites as well as the blacks. It makes the white fathers cruel and sensual; the sons violent and licentious; it contaminates the daughters, and makes the wives wretched. And as for the colored race, it needs an abler pen than mine to describe the extremity of their sufferings, the depth of their degradation.”
We must also remember this book is fiction because it makes the notion of this could have happened to you more real. As I was reading this book I kept anticipating the fairytale ending, or I kept imagining means of getting the slave (whoever it may be) out of trouble. But because I knew the story was true I had to face the reality of what happened.
Some aspects I noticed of the book were…
-Is Grandmother the heroine and Mr. Flint the antagonist? Which leads me to,
-This is the dilemma of good vs. evil