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A literary critic in our modern world might say that Harriet Jacobs' autobiography contains self-justification, confession, and an unrefined expose of society's once flawed system. Her work in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl certainly set the standard for a new type of slave narrative—one written by the female sex geared towards a female audience. Jacobs explores the myths and realities surrounding African American womanhood in bondage and its relationship to 19th century standards associated with the white-dominated so-called "Cult of Womanhood." In trying to reach free white women of the north, Jacobs explains, "I have not written my experiences in order to attract attention to myself […] I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South, still in bondage, suffering what I suffered" (p 281). Jacobs even writes of her experiences under the false name of Linda Brent and masks important......

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Approximate Word Count: 1766
Approximate Pages: 8 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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