Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl | Epigraph

Epigraph

“Northerners know nothing at all about Slavery. They think it is perpetual bondage only. They have no conception of the depth of degradation involved in that word, slavery; if they had, they would never cease their efforts until so horrible a system was overthrown.”

A Woman of North Carolina.

“Rise up, ye women that are at ease! Hear my voice, ye careless daughters! Give ear unto my speech.”

Isaiah xxxii. 9.

  • “Rise up'careless daughters!” – This quotation from the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament calls on the women of Jerusalem to set an example of repentance for the many social injustices that had been allowed to occur in their land. Harriet Jacobs, in writing Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is doing a similar thing. She is calling on women, especially the middle-class white women of the North, to awaken from their ignorance and complacency regarding the unjust institution of slavery.