My Life as An Enslaved Person

As a law in North Carolina, a mother’s status as an enslaved person is passed on to her children. My mother died when I was six years old and shortly thereafter, I was sent to my late mother’s mistress to become the companion of a young daughter who was my age. The mistress taught me to read and spell but her untimely death had me bequeathed to a cruel master who never failed to remind me that I was his property and had the right to rule me body and soul. To slaveholders, a slave being a property cannot have any properties and slavery according to Senator Brown of Mississippi is “a great moral, social, and political blessing to both master and the slave (Jacobs, 1861)”   

To stop my master from making me his concubine, I entered into a relationship with a white man who showed me some kindness. I had two children from the relationship but my master continued to harass me and never failing to remind me that my children and I were his property. I learned from another kindly slave that my master planned on sending me to the plantation for my children to be broken in as slaves. My primary concern is for me and my children to be free. However, to slaves who were supposed to be illiterate and unable to think for themselves, the promise of freedom, even if given in writing, is not legally binding.

When I escaped, a friend hid me in her mistress’ home, not far from my master’s home. I was very careful not to endanger the people who were helping me on my escape. My master never had any suspicion that I never left town. During one of my master’s absences to hunt for me in New York, my children were auctioned and bought in behalf of their father, a white man.  My children were later entrusted to my grandmother who just became a free woman, having been bought at an auction by an elderly lady who manumitted her as soon as her sale was finalized.

I transferred from one hiding place to another until I got to my grandmother’s home. I hid in her attic for seven years watching my children grow until my uncle could make arrangements for me to be transported to the North.  While I was in New York, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Concerned that I would be kidnapped and transported back to North Carolina, my employer hid me when she learned that my master’s heirs were in town looking for me. She later persuaded and paid $300 to the heirs of my master for my freedom.

 

  

Bibliography

Jacobs, Harriet A. 1813-1897 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Kindle Edition.  Grapevine India. Originally Published by Lydia Maria Child, 1861

National Historical Publication & Records Commission. The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers, Last Reviewed on June 2, 2019, Available at https://www.archives.gov Accessed on 11 March 2023

Scott Corbett, P., Volker, J. et al. Troubled Times: The Tumultuous 1850s U.S. History, OpenStax, Rice University, Houston Texas, 2017

(This post was an assignment submitted to my US History class at EGCC.)