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Quotes from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself — Harriet Jacobs

1813–1897 United States

← All quotes by Harriet Jacobs

2 quotes

O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another. You never exhausted your ingenuity in avoiding the snares, and eluding the power of a hated tyrant; you never shuddered at the sound of his footsteps, and trembled within hearing of his voice.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1861)

Notwithstanding my grandmother's long and faithful service to her owners, not one of her children escaped the auction block. These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1861)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Harriet Jacobs (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.