It must all be done in darkness. It was impossible for me to move in an erect position, so I crawled about my den for exercise. One day I hit my head against something, and found it was a small tool for drilling. My uncle had left it sticking there when he made the trapdoor. I said to myself, "Now I will have some light. Now I will see my children. I sat by it till late into the night to enjoy the little whiff of air that floated in.
In the morning I heard the merry laugh of children, and presently two faces were looking up at me, as though they knew I was there. I longed to tell them I was there! The heat of my den was intense, for nothing but thin shingles protected me from the scorching summer's sun.
But I had my consolations. Aunt Nancy brought me all the news she could hear at Dr. From her I learned that the doctor had written to New York to a colored woman, who had been born and raised in our neighborhood.
He offered her a reward if she could find out anything out about me. He soon after started for New York in haste, saying to his family that he had important business. Autumn came, with a pleasant abatement of heat. My eyes had become accustomed to the dim light, and by holding my book or work in a certain position near the opening I managed to read and sew.
That was a great relief to the tedious monotony of my life. But when winter came, the cold penetrated through the thin shingle roof, and I was dreadfully chilled. The kind grandmother brought me bedclothes and warm drinks. Often I was obliged to lie in bed all day to keep comfortable; but with all my precautions, my shoulders and feet were frostbitten. Oh, those long, gloomy days, with no object for my eye to rest upon, and no thoughts to occupy my mind, except the dreary past and the uncertain future!
I was thankful when there came a day sufficiently mild for me to wrap myself up and sit at the loophole to watch the passersby. Southerners have the habit of stopping and talking in the streets, and I heard many conversations not intended to meet my ears. Several times I heard allusions to Dr.
Flint, myself, and the history of my children. The opinion was often expressed that I was in the Free States. Very rarely did anyone suggest that I might be in the vicinity. Had the least suspicion rested on my grandmother's house, it would have been burned to the ground. But it was the last place they thought of. Flint and his family repeatedly tried to coax and bribe my children to tell something they had heard about me.
One day the doctor took them into a shop, and offered them some bright little silver pieces and gay handkerchiefs if they would tell where their mother was.
I can finally start my campaign of molestation! Flint grows jealous, and Linda fears for her life. She sets her sights on Mr. Sands, hoping that he'll buy her if she has sex with him. First comes love, then comes the baby carriage, and soon Linda is carrying Mr. Aunt Martha is not thrilled. Neither is Dr. Linda has her baby, and they're both sick for a long time but survive. The abuse continues.
One day, Dr. Flint throws Linda down the stairs; another time, he throws her son across the room; then, when she gets pregnant a second time, Dr. Flint cuts off all of her hair. Linda is all about going to the plantation rather than having sex with this gross old man, but she leaves her son behind because he's sick.
Meanwhile, Mr. Linda writes Dr. In Jacobs escaped to the North by boat, determined to reclaim her daughter from Sawyer, who had sent her to Brooklyn, New York, to work as a house servant. For ten years after her escape from North Carolina, Harriet Jacobs lived the tense and uncertain life of a fugitive slave.
Jacobs warded off his advances by entering into an affair with a prominent white lawyer named Samuel Treadwell Sawyer and bearing him two children: Joseph b. Flint grows jealous, and Linda fears for her life.
She sets her sights on Mr. Linda confesses her pregnancy to Aunt Martha. They are constantly compelled to resort to it.
It is the only weapon of the weak and oppressed against the strength of their tyrants. In June of , after seven years of mistreatment, Harriet escaped. For a short time she stayed with various neighbors, both black and white. Then she moved into a tiny crawlspace above a porch built by her grandmother and uncle. In , Harriet made her escape to freedom. Norcom had violently refused.
Now Harriet had a plan to disrupt his fight for sexual conquest: She had become friends with a caring white man — an unmarried lawyer. She would become sexually involved with this man, become pregnant, and an infuriated Norcom would sell her and her child. A child was conceived. Emphasizing his kindness toward William, whom he claims he treated like his own brother, Mr.
Sands blames the abolitionists for luring William away and insists that he will return as soon as he discovers the harsh realities of life for free blacks. Although he has witnessed Dr. Flint's cruel treatment of William and the way other slaveholders treat their slaves, Mr. Sands, as a free white man, cannot truly comprehend the devastating, soul-destroying reality of slavery and considers his slaves to be the equivalent of indentured servants who will regain their freedom in time and at his convenience.
As he points out, he had planned to give William his freedom in five more years, so he doesn't understand why he wants to run away. From Mr. Sands' perspective, Williams' action constitutes a breach of trust and loyalty rather than a bold and daring strike for freedom.
In this respect, Mr. Sands is not unlike Dr. Flint, who views Linda's refusal to submit to his advances in much the same way. Sands' professed ignorance of the brutal realities of slavery seems especially shallow and hypocritical given that he is fully aware that the mother of his two children has been reduced to living like a caged animal and he does nothing to help her.
Sands' decision to send her children to the North, and Jenny's near discovery of her hiding place — is the impetus for Linda's decision to escape.
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