Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1861

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-20

Chapters 21-25

Chapters 26-30

Chapters 31-35

Chapters 36-41

Key Figures

Themes

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 31-35Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 31 Summary: “Incidents in Philadelphia”

Fanny and Harriet were rowed to a wharf, where the captain spoke to “a respectable-looking colored man behind [her]” about New York trains (238). The man, Reverend Jeremiah Durham, was a minister in the Bethel church. After telling Fanny and Harriet that they were too late for the morning trains, Reverend Durham suggested Fanny could wait for a future train in a neighbor’s home, while Harriet could remain with the Durhams. The sailors bade the women goodbye.

Mrs. Durham greeted Harriet warmly. Harriet told Mr. Durham that she had two children—one in New York and one in the South. Mr. Durham hoped he could be of further service. An abolitionist friend of the Durhams from the Anti-Slavery Society was visiting and wanted to meet Harriet. The friend asked Harriet about her plans and offered help. The Anti-Slavery Society had paid Fanny’s fare to New York; they offered Harriet the same funding, but she refused, due to having her grandmother’s money. The friend advised her to remain in Philadelphia for a few days until they found a proper escort for her and Fanny.

That night, Harriet jumped up at the sound of fire bells. In the South, a fire alarm alerted slaves to make arrangements to extinguish the fire. She then realized that, in the North, she was not responsible for helping to fill the engine with water. As the days passed, Harriet spent more time with Mrs. Durham, whose intelligent conversation she enjoyed. One day, Mrs. Durham took Harriet to visit an artist friend who had painted portraits of her children. It was the first time Harriet had seen paintings featuring Black people.

After five days, a friend of Mrs. Durham’s agreed to accompany Harriet and Fanny to New York. As he handed the two women their train tickets, Mr. Durham warned Fanny and Harriet that they would have an unpleasant ride. Black people were forbidden from riding in first-class cars. Instead, they were only permitted passage “in a large, rough car […] crowded with people,” particularly men who smoked tobacco, drank whisky, and told crude jokes (243).

Chapter 32 Summary: “The Meeting of Mother and Daughter”

When Fanny and Harriet arrived in New York, they hired a cab to cart them and their trunks to a boarding house on Sullivan Street. There, Harriet and Fanny separated. Harriet later learned that Fanny ended up prospering in New York.

Harriet immediately arranged to see her daughter at the home of a Black woman who lived in Brooklyn. When Harriet and Ellen reunited, Harriet saw that her daughter was being neglected in her new home. Despite Ellen’s claims that she was treated well, Harriet was displeased that Ellen barely knew her letters. She determined that there was no excuse for this, considering the quality of public schools in the area. When Harriet visited Mrs. Hobbs—the woman ostensibly caring for Ellen—the latter reminded Harriet that Mr. Sands had given Ellen to her eldest daughter as a maid. Harriet realized that Mr. Sands hadn’t kept his promise. She now knew that she had no assurance regarding Benny.

Harriet wrote to Emily Flint and to Dr. Flint, asking him how much it would take for him to sell her. In response, Dr. Flint tried to convince her to return home—and then, he might grant Harriet her request.

Not long after arriving in the North, Harriet tried to visit her brother William, who had moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, but “he had gone on a whaling voyage, and would not return for some months” (249). In New York, Harriet found a job near where Ellen lived.

Chapter 33 Summary: “A Home Found”

Harriet’s greatest concern was finding a job. Her health had improved, but her limbs still swelled when she walked a lot. One day, she learned about an Englishwoman named Mrs. Bruce who was searching for a nurse for her daughter, Mary. They agreed to a week-long trial, which was successful. Harriet was thus employed for one month.

Noticing the swelling in Harriet’s limbs, Mrs. Bruce arranged for her not to have to climb up and down the stairs. She also found a physician to attend to Harriet. Harriet wanted to confide in Mrs. Bruce about her situation, though she remained mistrustful of White people. After six months, Harriet warmed to her employer and enjoyed her conversation and the opportunities for reading in the Bruce home.

Soon thereafter, Mrs. Bruce offered Harriet and Ellen a home. Harriet declined the offer, out of fear of offending the Hobbs family: Their knowledge of Harriet’s situation as a fugitive made things precarious. Still, Ellen was not well looked after. Mrs. Hobbs did not buy her new shoes or clothing, and Ellen’s eyes still suffered from an earlier bout of measles. However, when Mrs. Bruce suggested Ellen see a well-known oculist, Mrs. Hobbs refused to let Ellen go. Harriet knew that Mrs. Hobbs considered Ellen her property and was worried that Harriet would take the girl away.

One morning, while standing by the window with the Bruces’ baby in her arms, Harriet noticed a young man in a sailor’s uniform. The man was looking closely at each house as he passed. Harriet quickly recognized the man as William. She ran downstairs, and a moment later, she and her brother were locked in an embrace. He remained in New York for a week.

Chapter 34 Summary: “The Old Enemy Again”

Emily Flint did not respond to Harriet’s letter. However, Emily’s younger brother replied that all would be forgiven if Harriet returned. The very young boy could not have written it—its author must have been Dr. Flint, so she did not respond.

A friend in the South warned Harriet that Dr. Flint planned to go North. Mrs. Bruce still did not know that Harriet was a fugitive from slavery, so Harriet told her that she had to go to see William in Boston. From Boston, Harriet wrote her grandmother, requesting that she send Benny to Boston. As a free woman, Martha was legally able to perform this task. Benny was soon placed aboard a vessel going to New York.

Meanwhile, Dr. Flint arrived in New York. He looked for Harriet, but could not find her. When Harriet found out that Dr. Flint had left town, she left Benny in the care of William and went back to Mrs. Bruce.

Chapter 35 Summary: “Prejudice Against Color”

Mrs. Bruce and Harriet went to Albany on a steamboat called the Knickerbocker. Harriet feared that she would be met with racial prejudice. When the bell rang for tea, Mrs. Bruce asked Harriet to join her at the table and insisted that Harriet not face any insults in her company. As soon as they were seated, a Black server spoke gruffly to Harriet, demanding that she get up. When no one offered Harriet tea, Mrs. Bruce gave Harriet hers and called for a new cup. In contrast, the White nursemaids were waited on.

When they arrived at Rockaway Beach, they stayed at the Pavilion Hotel. At tea, Harriet took Mary and went to the table, but a server ordered Harriet to seat Mary and stand behind the baby’s chair—after everyone had eaten, Harriet could eat in the kitchen. Mrs. Bruce tried to solve the problem by ordering meals to the room, but even then, the White waiters complained about waiting on a Black woman, while the Black servants of other boarders complained about Harriet receiving special treatment. Harriet wondered at the other servants for not standing up for their dignity. She and the Bruces remained at the hotel for a month. After the staff realized that she would not have her rights trampled upon, they treated Harriet with respect.

Chapters 31-35 Analysis

Almost every detail in the book reveals a new aspect of planter society. For example, Jacobs jumping up in alarm after hearing the fire bells tells the reader that in the South, slaves were responsible for firefighting. In other words, no taxes were allotted for this service—another way failing slave state economies were propped up by free labor. The wealthier North had more state-supported infrastructure.

Jacobs describes how free, Black, middle-class people lived in the Northern cities. They enjoyed a safety and dignity that she had never known. However, their relative comforts did not spare them from segregation like Jim Crow rules on public transport. As Jacobs arrived in Philadelphia, a native of that city—writer, activist, and orator Frances E.W. Harper—led a protest over the city’s segregated streetcars.

No longer able to rely on Mr. Sands, Jacobs became fiercely self-reliant to protect Ellen. Still, Jacobs had greater luck than other fugitive slaves in finding work; she was also helped by her grandmother’s savings. Still, due to her race, gender, and lack of education, Jacobs was relegated to domestic work: In the North, middle-class women, usually White, depended on a steady supply of cheap servants—free Blacks and fugitive slaves from the South and immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.

Jacobs’s experience at the Pavilion Hotel underscores the arbitrariness of the color line. Physically, other servant women had skin only fractionally lighter than she, but their statuses as White women meant that they looked down on Jacobs. The belief in White supremacy gave the working class in both the North and the South comfort: No matter how poor or uneducated they were, they were, at least, not Black.

Jacobs’s mention of the subtle color difference also suggests that she may have been able to pass for White but chose not to. In contrast, Benny’s indignation with being called a “negro” and his later ostracism during his apprenticeship, strongly suggests that he did try to pass. The same may have been true for Ellen, who was later exposed as Black at school. Nothing in Jacobs’s narrative indicates that she had any interest in passing. She identified strongly as a Black woman, and this pride infuses her narrative with some of its power. This pride also led her to admonish the other Black servants who complained about her. Their complaints demonstrated their complicity in their own mistreatment.