Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Chapter 1-9

It is important that Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is autobiographical because it must be credible to show the injustices and horrible nature of slavery. It tells Linda’s (Harriet Jacobs’s) story of what it was like to be a slave and what tragic hardships slaves had to endure. By the story being a real account of a slave’s life, it appeals to ethos and pathos. It appeals to ethos because it has credentials since it is based on the personal experience as being a slave. It appeals to pathos because Jacob portrays the hardships she had to endure and it makes the audience have a better understanding about slavery. Through Linda’s stories of being a slave, the reader comes to comprehend the suffering, the degradation, the abuse, and loss of dignity that slaves encountered. It gives the perspective of the slaves and how they felt. By presenting the truth about the life of a slave girl, Linda hopes to “arouse the women of the North” (120) to see what abomination slavery is in the hopes that they might be able to help the women who are still slaves in the south.

It is important that the editor did not clean up the language or the content because it keeps the story more real with more feeling. It is convincing. By changing Linda’s account, the editor could have changed the emphasis or a strong feeling about a subject. It is important that the work be authentic so the reader is moved by the reality of Linda’s story.