Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl analysis

Cruelty, violence, racism, and hypocrisy were everywhere and were the means through which the slave holders could dehumanize their subjects reducing them to more of animals. From the slave masters to their children, from government institutions to religious institutions and to the slaves themselves, slavery was corrupting to everyone in its reaches. Linda Brent shows how slavery destroys the morality of slaveholders without exception. According to the author, the corruption in the institution of slavery ruin many slaveholders and their wives including those who had potential for living moral lives. Linda depicts characters such as Dr. Although Linda’s grandmother had been promised freedom by her mistress, Dr. Flint steals this freedom by auctioning her at a private sale. This shows how Dr. Flint lacks moral integrity of respecting the long faithful service Linda’s grandmother had given her mistress and which bought her freedom.

Mrs. To stress this rot, Linda says that the secrets of slavery are concealed like those of the Inquisition. For instance, her master had sired eleven slaves with his own women slaves and no one could dare reveal this for fear of dare consequences. Linda continues to show the moral decay caused by corruption of slavery system. While some masters force their women slaves into sleeping with them, the children born from such immoral actions are treated as slaves by the same masters who know very well that they are the fathers of such children. Besides, the southern women often marry a man knowing that he is a father of many little slaves but the women are not bothered by that. She recalls how she and another slave at Mr. Flint’s cotton plantation used to sneak at night to go home and see their family members.

Additionally, she remembers how she cheated her grandmother about her plans to escape telling by faking that she was just putting her things in order. Although her suspicious grandmother knew of her plans and tried to persuade her to be patient a bit longer, Linda had made up her own mind and escaped. Further, although Linda’s grandmother knew Linda had plans to escape, when Mr. Twas only white folks' lies, to skeer de niggers" (Jacobs, 23). He goes there to search for her but returns empty handed only to sell Linda’s Children and Linda’s brother William. The all-corrupting powers of the slavery system also influenced the churches and although some of the slaveholders were Christians, their actions did not show signs of Christian values like love, humanity, forgiveness and freedom from slavery.

Linda explains how her mistress used to tell her Bible scriptures like ‘Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you’ yet she held Linda as her slave and what she did to her salves was contrary to these teachings. Besides, Mrs. She would make a handy waiting-maid for my daughter by and by. But if she staid here, with her white face, I suppose I should either kill her or spoil her” (Jacobs, 22). This statement shows how hypocrisy was rampant during the period of this slavery system. It can be seen from the illustrations that slavery system in the 19th century was very corrupting. This corruption influenced both sides of the divide where the masters lost their moral integrity treating the slaves like animals or the cotton plants.