Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Quotes

“Reader, did you ever hate? I hope not. I never did but once; and I trust I never shall again. Somebody has called it "the atmosphere of hell"; and I believe it is so.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“There is something akin to freedom in having a lover who has no control over you, except that which he gains by kindness and attachment”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“God judges men by their hearts, not by the color of their skins.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

“There are wrongs which even the grave does not bury.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

“My Master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will. There is might in each.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Would that I had more ability! But my heart is so full, and my pen is so weak!”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“There are no bonds so strong as those which are formed by suffering together.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“I forgot that in the land of my birth the shadows are too dense for light to penetrate.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Cruelty is contagious in uncivilized communities.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

“No, I did not think of him. When a man is hunted like a wild beast he forgets there is a God, a heaven. He forgets every thing in his struggle to get beyond the reach of the bloodhounds.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

“Why allow the tendrils of the heart to twine around objects which may at any moment be wrenched away”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

“The brightest skies are always foreshadowed by dark clouds”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Ah, if he had ever been a slave he would have known how difficult it was to trust white men.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“I can testify, from my own experience and observation, that slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the blacks. It makes white fathers cruel and sensual; the sons violent and licentious; it contaminates the daughters, and makes the wives wretched.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

“I resolved not to be conquered again.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Women are considered of no value, unless they continually increase their owner's stock. They are put on a par with animals. This same master shot a woman through the head, who had run away and been brought back to him. No one called him to account for it. If a slave resisted being whipped, the bloodhounds were unpacked, and set upon him, to tear his flesh from his bones. The master who did these things was highly educated, and styled a perfect gentleman. He also boasted the name and standing of a Christian, though Satan never had a truer follower. I”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

“It is a sad feeling to be afraid of one's native country.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“He grew vexed and asked if poverty and hardships with freedom, were not preferable to our treatment in slavery...No, I will not stay. Let them bring me back. We don't die but once.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“I once two beautiful children playing together. One was a fair white child; the other was her slave, and also her sister. When I saw them embracing each other, and heard their joyous laughter, I turned sadly away from the lovely sight. I foresaw the inevitable blight that would follow on the little slave's heart. I knew how soon her laughter would be changed to sighs. The fair child grew up to be a still fairer woman. From childhood to womanhood her pathway was blooming with flowers, and overarched by a sunny sky. Scarcely one day of her life had been clouded when the sun rose on her happy bridal morning.

How had those years dealt with her slave sister, the little playmate of her childhood? She, also, was very beautiful; but the flowers and sunshine of love were not for her. She drank the cup of sin, and shame, and misery, whereof her persecuted race are compelled to drink.

In view of these things, why are ye silent, ye free men and women of the north? Why do your tongues falter in maintenance of the right? Would that I had more ability! But my heart is so full, and my pen is so weak! There are noble men and women who plead for us, striving to help those who cannot help themselves. God bless them! God give them strength and courage to go on! God bless those, every where, who are laboring to advance the cause of humanity!”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Ah, if he had ever been a slave he would have known how difficult it was to trust a white man.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“the scripture says "oppression makes it even a wise man mad"...”
― harriet jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Satan's church is here below; Up to God's free church I hope to go.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“What does he know of the half-starved wretches toiling from dawn till dark on the plantations? of mothers shrieking for their children, torn from their arms by slave traders? of young girls dragged down into moral filth? of pools of blood around the whipping post? of hounds trained to tear human flesh?”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“They all spoke kindly of my dead mother, who had been a slave merely in name, but in nature was noble and womanly.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

“Reader, did you ever hate? I hope not. I never did but once; and I trust I never shall again. Somebody has called it "the atmosphere of hell;" and I believe it is so.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

“She may be an ignorant creature, degraded by the system that has brutalized her from childhood; but she has a mother's instincts, and is capable of feeling a mother's agonies.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“So I was sold at last! A human being sold in the free city of New York! The bill of sale is on record, and future generations will learn from it that women were articles of traffic in New York, late in the nineteenth century of the Christian religion.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Are doctors of divinity blind or are they hypocrites?”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Yet few slaveholders seem to be aware of the widespread moral ruin occasioned by this wicked system. Their talk is of blighted cotton crops--not of the blight on their children's souls.”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Do you know that I have a right to do as I like with you,—that I can kill you, if I please?" "You”
― Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself