Oddly readable for the era

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs

First published in 1861, this is an autobiography of a woman who eventually escaped to New York.  Later in life she became an abolitionist speaker. The sources I consulted called it a fictionalized history, but having read it through, I'd say there was very little fiction to it. She changed the names of the main characters, but who can blame her? Some of the people were still alive when the book was published. The good people would have suffered for the deeds they did, and the evil ones would have filed one heck of a libel suit.

Even after living on her own for years, she still lived in fear of being captured and returned.  Eventually a  good friend purchased her freedom and that of her children. The generous (or decent) act was done against her wishes, but she admits to relief when it was all over. So much joy! But tinged with eternal grief.  And her one fondest wish was to live in a house together with her son and daughter, but that wish was never realized. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 scared her brother into emigrating to California and her son went with him. Her daughter was educated in a boarding school.

The book ended too soon for me. After hearing of all she'd suffered, I longed to hear her reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation.

One interesting note--bearing in mind that it was written in the mid-nineteenth century, the story is told straightforwardly, with only a modicum of moralizing. Her little asides in the stylistic, preaching tones of the typical nineteenth century writer were easy to ignore.  Her moral indignation was not so convincing, either--when she resisted her master's attempts to rape her, I suspect it wasn't chastity she was concerned with, but subjugation.  It was a power struggle--and she was one determined woman.