Voices of the People: Our African-American Heritage
Teacher’s Guide, Grade 9, Level I
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, p. 30
Introducing the Lesson
Vocabulary for the Selection
Before students begin reading the selection, refer
them to the definitions of vocabulary items from
the selection. These are located in the Glossary
beginning on page 93 of the student text.
Avail, v. Benefit; aid
Bequeathed, past. part. Given by last will and
testament; handed down
Blight, n. Extremely negative condition (literally,
any of a number of diseases affecting plants and
causing them to wilt or die)
Ceased, v. Stopped
Chattel, n. A moveable item of personal property
Diligently, adv. Industriously; with effort and care
Earnestly, adv. In a serious, sincere, dedicated
manner
• What a slave narrative is. Make sure that
students understand that a slave narrative was
the life story of a person who had been or was
enslaved.
• The role of the slave narrative in the Abolitionist,
or anti-slavery movement. Explain that those
working toward the end of slavery often
collected, orally; financed the publication of;
provided editorial support; and otherwise
assisted in bringing slave narratives to press
in order to raise public consciousness about
the horrors of slavery. Harriet Jacobs was
encouraged to tell her story by Abolitionist Amy
Post.
Close Reading
Have students glance through the questions under
Key Ideas and Details on page 36 and answer these
questions as they read through the selection. (See
the answers given below under “Answer Key.”)
Erected, past. part. Built, constructed
Checktest
Evinced, v. Showed the presence of
After students have read the selection, administer
the multiple-choice checktest to ensure that they
have done the reading.
Notwithstanding, prep. In spite of
Officiating, pres. part. Acting as an official or
manager in charge of something
Precepts, n. General rules intended to regulate
behavior or thought
Privilege, n. Special benefit, favor, or advantage
Weaned, past part. Started on food other than
mother’s milk
Prereading
Discuss with students the Prereading note on page
30 before the begin reading the selection. Make sure
that students understand the following concepts
before they begin reading:
Discussing the Selection
After students have finished the checktest, hold a
class discussion of the selection.
Choose a student to read aloud A Reading of the
Selection on page 37. Discuss with students Harriet
Jacobs’s realization. Ask: What does it mean for a
person to be treated as “property”? What kinds of
things are treated as property? What is not treated
as property? How doe these things differ?
Advanced students: The philosopher Immanuel Kant
is noted, among other things, for his contention that
people should be thought of as ends, not means. In
copyright © 2012, Callisto School Publishing. All rights reserved.
Voices of the People: Our African-American Heritage
Teacher’s Guide, Grade 9, Level I
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, p. 30
other words, people have value in and of themselves,
not simply as objects to be used to achieve some
end, task, or goal. Ask: In what way was slavery a
violation of Kant’s principle?
Choose a student to read aloud the note on the
Cultural/Historical Context of the selection, on page
36. Point out that it became necessary for Harriet
Jacobs’s friend to purchase and free her because
even though Jacobs was living in a free state, under
the revised Fugitive Slave Law, Jacobs could be
captured there and forcibly returned to slavery. This
was too great a risk.
Read the note under About the Author on page
36. Explain that writers of fiction and nonfiction
works served the anti-slavery cause by describing,
often in horrific detail, the abuses that slaves
suffered. Such anti-slavery writing was necessary
in order to counter pro-slavery propaganda that
portrayed slavery as a benign institution, one in
which “masters” treated their slaves well because
they were valuable “property” and in which
enslaved people were content, even happy, about
their circumstances. A very large literature of slave
narratives, anti-slavery spirituals, speeches, and
eyewitness accounts of conditions under which
slaves lived, shows how very false those notions
were.
She says that she was unaware of the fact that
she was “born a slave” and would be treated as “a
piece of merchandise.”
2. What happens to the narrator’s maternal
grandmother, her mother, and her siblings even
though they had been set free?
They were captured and “sold to different
purchasers.” In other words, even though they
were legally free, they were sold back into slavery.
3. What happens to the narrator’s grandmother’s
son, Benjamin? Why?
When her “master” died, the grandmother’s five
children were to be inherited by the “master’s”
heirs. Benjamin was sold so that the “property”
(that is, the children) could be divided up evenly,
in “an equal portion of dollars and cents.”
4. What does her grandmother hope to do with
the money that she made baking crackers? What
happens to this money instead?
She wants to use this money to buy her children.
Instead, her “mistress” “borrows” the money,
never to return it, and the grandmother has no
legal recourse because she is enslaved.
Refer students to the questions raised under
Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, and
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas on page 37.
Discuss the questions raised in these sections, in
turn. (See the answers given below under “Answer
Key.”
5. What does the narrator expect to happen upon
the death of her “mistress”?
Answer Key
One of the themes of Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl is that the institution of slavery contradicts basic
principles of morality and of the Christian religion,
principles like the Golden Rule. Jacobs mentions
several ways in which the slave owners violated this
Key Ideas and Details
1. What
does the narrator say that she was unaware
of until she was six years old?
She harbored hope that her “mistress” had left her
free.
Craft and Structure
copyright © 2012, Callisto School Publishing. All rights reserved.
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Voices of the People: Our African-American Heritage
Teacher’s Guide, Grade 9, Level I
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, p. 30
rule. No one would like to be treated like property,
to have faithful service unacknowledged and
“rewarded” with continued enslavement, which his
what happened to Jacobs. No one would like to be
deprived of rights and of legal recourse to protect
those rights, as when the maternal grandmother,
Jacobs’s mother, and her siblings were freed and
then arbitrarily re-enslaved. No one would like to
have their children taken from them and sold off.
No one would like to have money earned over a
long time from hard labor “borrowed” never to be
returned. All these actions amount to violations of
the Golden Rule. Jacobs is making the point, clearly,
that such actions are violations of a central principle
of the Christian faith.
It is ironic that it was Jacobs’s “mistress” who taught
Jacobs the Golden Rule, but it was this same mistress
who, on her death, consigned Jacobs to further
enslavement.
Jacobs probably did not use her real name because
of the Fugitive Slave Law. She probably didn’t want
to be identified as the author, hunted down, and
returned to slavery.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
The slave narrative was a powerful tool for the
Abolitionists to use precisely because readers
identified with the central character of the narrative
and with other enslaved people, came to see them
as fully human (not chattel or property), and so came
to have a fuller understanding of just how evil slavery
was. Post would have known that readers would
identify with the central character (Linda Brent,
Jacobs’s alias) and would be angered and horrified by
what this person had suffered.
Writing Practice
Use the Writing Rubric: Narrative to assess the
student’s work. This rubric is available at http://
callistoeducation.com/Teacher9.htm.
Speaking and Listening Practice
This activity presents an opportunity to teach
students to use a rough outline form and
abbreviations for taking notes. In a rough outline,
one jots down main ideas as phrases and, under
these, other phrases that present related or
subordinate ideas, like this:
Mars rover Curiosity
--Purposes of mission
--Look for signs of life
--Study Martian climate
--Study Martian geology
--Prepare for human explor.
--Signs of ancient or existing life
--Water
--Organic molecules
--Fossilized traces (of bacteria, etc.)
Explain to your students that they can use symbols
and abbreviations such as the following when they
take notes.
& or + for and
Amer. for American
w/ for with
¬ for not
> for greater than
Λ for change
Point out to your students that when they are taking
notes on a recorded piece such as a Ted Talk, they
copyright © 2012, Callisto School Publishing. All rights reserved.
Voices of the People: Our African-American Heritage
Teacher’s Guide, Grade 9, Level I
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, p. 30
can pause the talk or rewind and relisten to make
sure that they have understood something.
When evaluating your student’s speeches, consider
the following elements:
• Quality of the arguments
• Q
uality of delivery (appropriate volume, eye
contact, pacing, variation in tone and pitch,
appropriateness of facial expressions and body
language)
Language Practice
Answers will vary, depending upon the specific
modifiers that students add. (Note: Encourage
students to try their hands at using various types
of modifiers, including adjectives and prepositional
phrases.)
1. an ancient, handwritten book
2. a derelict, sun-bleached boat
• Divide you class into study groups and have each
group choose, with your assistance, a gifted
reader to introduce (and read aloud) each part
of the study apparatus.
Additional Resources
Here are some additional resources for teaching the
lesson:
• http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.
html. Entire text of Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl, Written by Herself, by Harriet Ann Jacobs.
Edited Lydia Maria Francis Child.
• Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl. NY: Dover Thrift Editions, 2001. An
inexpensive print edition of the entire work.
• American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/
wpahome.html. A superb online repository of
narratives by ex-enslaved persons collected from
1936 to 1938.
3. a large, rolly-polly panda
4. owner of a painting by Picasso
5. an elf-like deer peeking through the foliage
Differentiating the Instruction
Here are some ideas for differentiating your
instruction for the selection:
• Ability with spoken language generally outpaces
reading and writing ability. You may wish to read
aloud part or all of the Prereading and other
study apparatus for the selection to your English
language learners.
• Consider reading part of the selection aloud to
you class and having them then complete the
reading on their own.
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