Harriet Ann Jacobs Quotes

Quotes about:

Children Fathers Literature Mothers Slavery Slaves Suffering

When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Girl, Heart, Men

Harriet Ann Jacobs (2006). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Literary Touchstone Classic”, p.92, Prestwick House Inc

26 Copy quote
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 the white fathers cruel and sensual; the sons violent and licentious; it contaminates the daughters, and makes the wives wretched. And as for the colored race, it needs an abler pen than mine to describe the extremity of their sufferings, the depth of their degradation.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Daughter, Father, Son

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.81

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There are no bonds so strong as those which are formed by suffering together

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Strong, Suffering, Together

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.257

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My master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will. There is might in each.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Law, Slave Girl, Patriotism

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.130

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There are wrongs which even the grave does not bury.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Black, Doe, Injustice

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.294

34 Copy quote
Death is better than slavery.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Slavery

Harriet Ann Jacobs, Lydia Maria Child (2011). “The Deeper Wrong: Or, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.96, Cambridge University Press

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The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Beautiful, Spring, Soul

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.126

60 Copy quote
The war of my life had begun; and though one of God's most powerless creatures, I resolved never to be conquered.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

War, Creatures, Powerless

Harriet Ann Jacobs (2006). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Literary Touchstone Classic”, p.29, Prestwick House Inc

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No pen can give an adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Giving, Literature, Adequate

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.79

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Could you have seen that mother clinging to her child, when they fastened the irons upon his wrists; could you have heard her heart-rending groans, and seen her bloodshot eyes wander wildly from face to face, vainly pleading for mercy; could you have witnessed that scene as I saw it, you would exclaim, Slavery is damnable!

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Mother, Children, Eye

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.38

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Cruelty is contagious in uncivilized communities.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Community, Literature, Cruelty

Harriet Ann Jacobs (2006). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Literary Touchstone Classic”, p.234, Prestwick House Inc

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The degradation, the wrongs, the vices, that grow out of slavery, are more than I can describe. They are greater than you would willingly believe.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Believe, Vices, Degradation

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.45

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The slave girl is reared in an atmosphere of licentiousness and fear.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Girl, Slave Girl, Atmosphere

Harriet Ann Jacobs (2006). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Literary Touchstone Classic”, p.62, Prestwick House Inc

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There is a great difference between Christianity and religion at the south. If a man goes to the communion table, and pays money into the treasury of the church, no matter if it be the price of blood, he is called religious.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Religious, Men, Differences

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.115

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But I now entered on my fifteenth year - a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl. My master began to whisper foul words in my ear. Young as I was, I could not remain ignorant of their import

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Girl, Years, Ignorant

Harriet Ann Jacobs (2006). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Literary Touchstone Classic”, p.37, Prestwick House Inc

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For years, my master had done his utmost to pollute my mind with foul images, and to destroy the pure principles inculcated by my grandmother, and the good mistress of my childhood

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Grandmother, Years, Childhood

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.83

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Lives that flash in sunshine, and lives that are born in tears, receive their hue from circumstances.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Sunshine, Tears, Hue

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.93

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I would rather drudge out my life on a cotton plantation, till the grave opened to give me rest, than to live with an unprincipled master and a jealous mistress.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Jealous, Slave Girl, Giving

Harriet Ann Jacobs (2006). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Literary Touchstone Classic”, p.41, Prestwick House Inc

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I WAS born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Slave Girl, Years, Childhood

Harriet Ann Jacobs, Lydia Maria Child (2011). “The Deeper Wrong: Or, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.11, Cambridge University Press

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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 Ann Jacobs

Kindness, Attachment, Slave Girl

Harriet Ann Jacobs, Lydia Maria Child (2011). “The Deeper Wrong: Or, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.85, Cambridge University Press

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Dr. Flint had sworn that he would make me suffer, to my last day, for this new crime against him, as he called it; and as long as he had me in his power he kept his word

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Long, New Day, Suffering

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.119

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If you want to be fully convinced of the abominations of slavery, go on a southern plantation, and call yourself a negro trader. Then there will be no concealment; and you will see and hear things that will seem to you impossible among human beings with immortal souls.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Southern, Soul, Literature

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.81

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I was ordered to go for flowers, that my mistress's house might be decorated for an evening party. I spent the day gathering flowers and weaving them into festoons, while the dead body of my father was lying within a mile of me. What cared my owners for that? he was merely a piece of property. Moreover, they thought he had spoiled his children, by teaching them to feel that they were human beings. This was blasphemous doctrine for a slave to teach; presumptuous in him, and dangerous to the masters.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Children, Lying, Father

Harriet Ann Jacobs (2015). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: An Autobiographical Account of an Escaped Slave and Abolitionist”, p.18, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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Always it gave me a pang that my children had no lawful claim to a name.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Mother, Children, Hypocrite

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.120

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There must be sophistry in all this; but the condition of a slave confuses all principles of morality, and, in fact, renders the practice of them impossible.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Practice, Principles, Sophistry

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.85

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Born: February 11, 1813
Died: March 7, 1897
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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