Incidents of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs is not a full autobiography of her life as a slave. However, it is a narrative detailing the important moments of her life. It has been argued by scholars that this narrative is not credible because Jacobs chooses to omit certain situations and experiences from the text. Gabrielle Forman argues in her essay “The Spoken and The Silenced in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Our Nig” that “In many ways Jacobs negotiates her way through her narrative, creating gaps and silences on her own terms” (317). Jacobs writes absences and gaps into the events which she chooses to present. In a letter to her friend Amy Post she writes not "there are some things I might have included," but that "there are some things that I might have made plainer-Woman can whisper her cruel wrongs into the ear of a dear friend much easier than she could record them for the world to read" (Sterling 81). This idea of not being to speak totally free in her work connects to Jacobs idea of virtue.
This issue and theme of virtue are covered throughout the narrative, especially when Jacobs removes herself from the text and speaks directly to her audience. At one point in the text Jacobs addresses her white female audience and states, “But, O, ye happy women whose purity has been sheltered from childhood, who have been free to choose the objects of your affection, whose homes are protected by law, do not judge the poor desolate slave girl too severely” (827). This plea of moral leniency shows how Jacobs understands the virtue of the slave girl is not something that can be controlled personally. Jacobs recognizes the fact that slaves have no right and no control over the outcome of their personal lives; they are merely at the whim of the slave master. By speaking directly to her audience, Jacobs is trying to gain sympathy as well as understand her audience. Her desire for understanding and compassion makes you see why she chose to omit certain sections of her life and why she chose to speak directly to her audience in her text.
Virtue is a topic that was heavily discussing during the time when Jacobs decided to write her work. Historical figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had opinions and writing in regards to the issue of virtue. Quinby Lee speaks about Thomas Jefferson's idea's about virtue in his text "Thomas Jefferson The Virtue of Aesthetics and the Aesthetics of Virtue", Lee states "Jefferson’s writings stress the means of gaining virtue—that is, the process and struggle itself—nearly as much as the desired result. Thus, his place in the history of ideas appears to be more ambiguous than is usually appreciated. Rather than solely an exemplum of the neoclassical rage for order, harmony, and regularity, Jefferson was almost enthusiastic as were the romantics for disorder, disharmony and irregularity". Jefferson was not interested in virtue having a black and white definition, in fact he was in interest of the latter, defining your own virtue, and working through the process of creating your own idea of virtue.
Although Jacobs didn't believe herself to be a virtuous woman because of the nature of her children's birth and her inability to marry the man she desired, I would still call her a virtuous woman. Despite being in the middle of a ruthless chattel slavery system, Jacobs still managed to make her own decisions. Harriet Jacobs could just be seen as a defiant slave, but she should actually be a described as a woman who made the best decisions she could in her unique circumstances. Living in slavery is not an ideal living situation, however, Jacobs was able to make logical and ethical decisions regarding the upbringing of her children. If protecting your children and their well-being doesn't make you a virtuous woman then I don't know what does.
This issue and theme of virtue are covered throughout the narrative, especially when Jacobs removes herself from the text and speaks directly to her audience. At one point in the text Jacobs addresses her white female audience and states, “But, O, ye happy women whose purity has been sheltered from childhood, who have been free to choose the objects of your affection, whose homes are protected by law, do not judge the poor desolate slave girl too severely” (827). This plea of moral leniency shows how Jacobs understands the virtue of the slave girl is not something that can be controlled personally. Jacobs recognizes the fact that slaves have no right and no control over the outcome of their personal lives; they are merely at the whim of the slave master. By speaking directly to her audience, Jacobs is trying to gain sympathy as well as understand her audience. Her desire for understanding and compassion makes you see why she chose to omit certain sections of her life and why she chose to speak directly to her audience in her text.
Virtue is a topic that was heavily discussing during the time when Jacobs decided to write her work. Historical figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had opinions and writing in regards to the issue of virtue. Quinby Lee speaks about Thomas Jefferson's idea's about virtue in his text "Thomas Jefferson The Virtue of Aesthetics and the Aesthetics of Virtue", Lee states "Jefferson’s writings stress the means of gaining virtue—that is, the process and struggle itself—nearly as much as the desired result. Thus, his place in the history of ideas appears to be more ambiguous than is usually appreciated. Rather than solely an exemplum of the neoclassical rage for order, harmony, and regularity, Jefferson was almost enthusiastic as were the romantics for disorder, disharmony and irregularity". Jefferson was not interested in virtue having a black and white definition, in fact he was in interest of the latter, defining your own virtue, and working through the process of creating your own idea of virtue.
Although Jacobs didn't believe herself to be a virtuous woman because of the nature of her children's birth and her inability to marry the man she desired, I would still call her a virtuous woman. Despite being in the middle of a ruthless chattel slavery system, Jacobs still managed to make her own decisions. Harriet Jacobs could just be seen as a defiant slave, but she should actually be a described as a woman who made the best decisions she could in her unique circumstances. Living in slavery is not an ideal living situation, however, Jacobs was able to make logical and ethical decisions regarding the upbringing of her children. If protecting your children and their well-being doesn't make you a virtuous woman then I don't know what does.