The full quote in question comes when Harriet Jacobs writes, "Reader, my story ends with freedom; not in the usual way, with marriage."

Remember, Jacobs published Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in the late 1800s. A little before then, Charlotte Brontë published her classic novel Jane Eyre. How does Eyre end? It ends with the eponymous character telling us, "Reader, I married him." We might read Jacobs's declaration as a counter to Eyre's famous announcement.

Of course, Jane Eyre is far from the only nineteenth-century book in which the woman protagonist ends up getting married. There's marriage in The Portrait of a Lady, Silas Marner, Wuthering Heights, and Vanity Fair. Even the contrary, anti-marriage Emma gets married in Jane Austen's eponymous novel.

With her statement, we could say Jacobs challenges the normalcy of marriage. A woman doesn't have to get married to have a happy ending. There are other options, even if society does its best to dissuade women from pursuing those alternatives.

Considering "individualism," you might want to think more about how Jacobs’s disavowal of marriage is and isn't a sign of individuality. Think about how Jacobs says she wants a home for her "children's sake." Think about the "love, duty, and gratitude" she feels for Mrs. Bruce. Perhaps Jacobs isn't championing individualism. Maybe what she's promoting is a union or bond with something other than a man.