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Harriet Ann Jacobs was a interacial slave of black and white blood under the bondage of a family known as the Flints. During age fifteen her understanding of just how white masters sought to know their female African slaves became quite clear to her when the advances of her fifty-five year old slave holder were expressed repeatedly. If not gestured then hinted and to her dismay knowing how to read Harriet was one day caught reading a book by Dr. Flint (a local physician) who began using this to his advantage by slipping her little notes. Not withholding derogatory remarks he literally appeared before her around every corner, daily comprising plans in which to defile her. These plans later became even more effecient when his jealous wife’s rage toward Harriet gave him the opportunity to build the slave girl a house on the property. A place in which his wife did not have to look upon her face, yet a place in which he could see her secretly and as often as he liked.
Harriet was greatly distressed and sought a way in which to escape her imprisonment, knowing the exact plans of Dr. Flint. She was often friendly on the streets with a white man named Mr. Sands who knew her grandmother. He knew of her situation and sympathised with her greatly. Harriet used this opportunity and not long after became pregnant, knowing Dr. Flint sold his slave women guilty of having his own children. Harriet was quite certain giving his fancy toward her he would sell her and the baby after becoming aware of her pregnancy. Although Harriet was sent to her grandmother’s due to Mrs. Flint’s hatred of her, her assumption proved to be wrong, for the slave holder had a pertinent obsession with this victim and would not sell her. He was harshly fixed upon her and used every means to destroy her and have her maimed as his own broken dog. This very clever idea worked against Harriet, causing even more anxiety upon herself. Many times he would come to her and threaten to sell her baby boy Benny.
Sometime later Harriet had a second child by Mr. Sands. A baby girl named Ellen. Her worry for the future of her little girl weighed upon her heavily, knowing the fate that awaited most slave girls in bondage also awaited her daughter.
Later Harriet was sent to the son of Dr. Flint in which from there she planned to escape after hearing her children would be also brought to the plantation from her grandmothers. That night, before they were to be taken the next day, she stole away . . . escaping from bondage. She was well aware of the plans in which her young master devised. Her children would be brought to the plantation to hold them all under obligation. To “break them” all in.
After escaping several days to a friends house Harriet sought permanent refuge in the garret of her grandmother’s old shed where she spent the better and worse part of seven years.
Not long after Harriet’s escape Dr. Flint was tricked into selling her children and her brother to a slave trader who in return was helping out Mr. Sands, the father of Harriet’s children. The children and William were then free to live with Harriet’s grandmother, upon the land where Harriet may spy a peak at her precious young ones whenever they laid foot outside.
Season’s appeared and vanished as Harriet was given many opportunities to overhear conversations of people stopping in the street conversing. On various accounts she was able to gather whether anyone believed she was residing in the area. To her relief it was on rare occasions anyone had suspected her to be within the vicinity but away and gone to a free state.
As well Dr. Flint would visit her grandmother and inform her on several different occasions that he would be leaving to New York to seek her out and bring Harriet back. Yet, the results were the same every time, he would come up empty. In due time Harriet devised to decoy her hateful master by writing a letter from time to time and have a trustworthy friend from New York send it to him so that nothing would arouse his suspicion that she was in the area. The plan worked out effectively.
Yet, there came a fateful day that Harriet was forced to allow her daughter Ellen to be sent with Mr. Sands relative’s due to threats from Dr. Flint. In secret she was given the opportunity to see Ellen for the first time since her escape. The next day Ellen left with the dear remembrance of her mother and the secret of her residence. Not long after Harriet met with Benny and promised to send for him when she escaped. With God’s blessing there was an opportunity for Harriet to escape by boat. This was achieved successfully and Harriet soon after became a nurse maid to a dear lady who passed away some time later, but was replaced by a second Mrs. Bruce.
Dr. Flint had passed away, but the Fugitive Slave Law was in affect and due to marital problems of Dr. Flint’s son-in-law. He sought to find Harriet in order to retrieve some money upon the break up with Flint’s daughter. This forced Harriet into hiding. Yet, to her relief soon after she was purchased by Mrs. Bruce and given her freedom and she and her children were able to live accordingly.
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