Incidents #4

While reading incidents of a slave girl I noticed that as soon as Jacobs started her journey to the north, her tone became much more joyful. After all those years living on the plantation, hiding in the roof and now she was going to freedom, off the plantation " never to see it again" (Jacobs 160). I also was much more interested in the book because instead of her getting continuasly abused on the plantation by Dr. Flint, she is actually going somewhere. She had hope which also gave me hope that the book would have a good ending giving me an incentive to read it.
Another thing I noticed was that there were many people in the north that were kind and helpful unlike almost everyone else in the south. For example, the captain of the ship that helped her get to the north undetected, did everything he could to help her on her way. He not only provided adaquet arrangements for them but also found a man he could trust and said " I will speak to him about the New York trains and tell him you wish to go directly on" (164). There was also the priest that since Jacobs missed her train that she could stay with him and his wife for the night until the next one arrived. I noticed that there is a very clear difference of tone in the north vs. the south. I think that with some luck and precaution, Jacobs could live happily ever after in the north.

Incidents #3

        When Jacobs goes to work on the plantation, it is easier to see how much she loves her children. When she visited them in the middle of the night, she describes the scene in such an emotional tone unlike the rest of the book. Generally, Jacobs wouldn't describe how comforting the house was but in this case she did. Jacobs took it a step further to describe "the tears[that] fell as I leaned over them" ( Jacobs 89). In all, the scene allows me to truly understand the love she has for her children. Later she writes that her children "give her the courage to beat back the dark waves that rolled over me in a seemingly endless night of storms" (Jacobs 92). Jacobs also goes to her mother and father's graves. She dedicates most of a page to tell of how much she missed them and how they as well gave her strength even from beyond the grave. This section really spoke to me unlike any other part of the hardships endured during slavery that weren't just whippings and beatings but the separation of families and death of family members. In the south, slavery was, I think ,just as mentally painful as well as physically painful.