Questions
- After reading a small amount about the life of Harriet Jacobs (considering the evidence that Jean Fagan Yellin has discovered), are there any lasting doubts about the authenticity of the autobiography?
- Considering Jacobs’s success of freeing herself and her family with determination and great faith, why was the end result not the same for countless more slaves who desperately sought freedom?
- In your opinion, considering all of her life’s events and her actions, does Harriet Jacobs exemplify the ideal slave? Why or why not? From whose perspective?
- Why is Harriet Jacobs not as well known among African American slaves? After all she did write her life down for the world to read.
- Even if we believe that Harriet Jacobs did, in fact, write Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, how do we know that all of the stories within the autobiography are true?