Carolina QuotesWe were not allowed to visit him; but we had known the jailer for years, and he was a kind-hearted man.
Harriet Jacobs Carolinian
Source
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself (1861)
- work
- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself
- year
- 1861
Cite this record
“We were not allowed to visit him; but we had known the jaile…” Harriet Jacobs. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-6E13A03A92. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/6e13a03a92
More from Harriet Jacobs
The secrets of slavery are concealed like those of the Inquisition. My master was, to my knowledge, the father of eleven slaves. But did the mothers dare to tell who was the father of their children? Did the other slaves dare to allude to it, except in whispers among themselves? No, indeed! They knew too well the terrible consequences.
I met my grandmother, who said, "Come with me, Linda;" and from her tone I knew that something sad had happened. She led me apart from the people, and then said, "My child, your father is dead." ... The good grandmother tried to comfort me. "Who knows the ways of God?" said she. "Perhaps they have been kindly taken from the evil days to come." Years afterwards I often thought of this. She promised to be a mother to her grandchildren, so far as she might be permitted to do so; and strengthened by her love, I returned to my master's. I thought I should be allowed to go to my father's house the next morning; but 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.
Notwithstanding my grandmother's long and faithful service to her owners, not one of her children escaped the auction block. These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend.