Harriet Ann Jacobs Quotes about Children

Could you have seen that mother clinging to her child, when they fastened the irons upon his wrists; could you have heard her heart-rending groans, and seen her bloodshot eyes wander wildly from face to face, vainly

Could you have seen that mother clinging to her child, when they fastened the irons upon his wrists; could you have heard her heart-rending groans, and seen her bloodshot eyes wander wildly from face to face, vainly pleading for mercy; could you have witnessed that scene as I saw it, you would exclaim, Slavery is damnable!

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Mother, Children, Eye

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.38

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. This was blasphemous doctrine for a slave to teach; presumptuous in him, and dangerous to the masters.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Children, Lying, Father

Harriet Ann Jacobs (2015). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: An Autobiographical Account of an Escaped Slave and Abolitionist”, p.18, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Always it gave me a pang that my children had no lawful claim to a name.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Mother, Children, Hypocrite

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.120

The slave child had no thought for the morrow; but there came that blight, which too surely waits on every human being born to be a chattel.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Children, Slave Girl, Waiting

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.15

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.

Harriet Ann Jacobs

Horse, Children, Block

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.16