2. Main Characters Linda Brent- The protagonist of the story. She was not told that she was a slave until she was six so that she would have a happy childhood. Then her mother dies and she learns from the ‘talk’ around her that she is a slave. As she gets older her new masters harass and abuse her. Later on she learns how to defend herself from them. She still desires to have her own personal freedom but she puts her children and family first. Dr. Flint- the antagonist in the book. Linda’s new master who has the legal rights to do anything to her. He tries to seduce her is cruel towards her. She continuously rebels against him and that gets him really angry. He wants to never sell her to new masters that offer good money. He wants complete control over her and puts her through misery, and never understands that she is a human being with feelings. Aunt Martha- Linda’s grandmother, and a free slave. She has a really tight bond with Linda and is hurt seeing her and the rest of her children and grandchildren go through slavery, and abuse they take from their white masters. She is determined to buy them all one day. She is saddened in the book when some of her loved ones cant wait and run away to freedom and she never sees them again. She wants to reunite everyone one day. She hates Dr. Flint with a passion, and he is even scared to be around her because she chased a white man with a gun who assulted one of her daughters.
3. Other Characters William- Linda’s brother, and a free spirited person, who was purchased from the same family as Linda, and learns at a young age the obedience to a master. He hates the words “Mistress” and “Master”. In the book he runs away from his masters, because he desires freedom. When he gets thrown into jail, he is also there to watch over Linda’s children who are there too. Later in the book, he wants to work with the abolitionists. Mr. Sands- Who is the baby’s father to Linda’s children. He is also white, and is the kinder version of Dr. Flint. He promises to once day free Linda and their children but fails to go through with it. He doesn’t really want a bond with his ‘mixed’ children. Then he gets a wife and has children her who he cares more about. Mrs. Flint- Linda’s mistress, who is cold-heart like her husband. She is a Christian but a hypocrite as she could sit in a chair and watch a slave woman get whipped. She is suspicious that Linda is having sexual affairs with her husband but is afraid to confront him about it so she takes her anger out on Linda does cruel things to her. She is a perfect example as to how the slave system can corrupt the southern woman. Benny and Ellen- Linda’s children with Mr. Sands. They aren’t really mentioned characteristically but they determine Linda’s actions in the book. Linda does everything in her power to save them from what she goes through herself, and their fate.
4. Plot Harriet Jacobs uses a fake name Linda Brent as she narrates . She was born a slave, with her parent who lived the life of a privileged slaves. When her mother dies little Linda is sent to live with her mothers mistress who is kind to her and teaches her how to read. Soon her mistress becomes sick and dies and Linda is left with a relative. Her new masters the Flint’s are cruel and abusive towards her. Dr. Flint soon pursues to try seducing her, to have a sexual relationship, and her mistress is cruel because she is jealous of the thought that they are having an affair. For several years she builds up the courage and determination she needs to defend herself from him, while she has a affair with a white man. Mr. Sands, who becomes the father to her children, Benny and Ellen. She hopes that by having an affair with the white man that one day Dr. Flint will sell her to him out of disgust. But he doesn’t and just send her away to slave away at his plantation
5. Climax ` Soon she finds out that her children are suppose to go to the plantation too. So she plans to escape and hides out in her grandmothers attic. In hopes that Dr. Flint will believe that she ran away to the north and sell her children to a slave trader who is secretly working for Mr. Sands who buys them and promises that he will free them one day. Linda becomes weak and physically harmed living in the small attic over her grandmother shed, but is happy that she gets to watch Benny and Ellen through a tiny peep hole from a couple feet away from the street. Soon Mr. Sands get married and had a daughter by his new wife. He becomes a congressman and bring Elle to D.C with him to baby sit their new daughter. Mr. Sands did not keep his promise that he will free them and she is scared that he never will and soon might sell them to slave traders. She then plans to leave the attic and runaway to the north. Dr. Flint is still hunting for her and her escaping is at a higher risk. Seven years passes and now Linda feels it is safe to escape to the north. She does by the help of her uncle Phillip who escapes by boat. Linda goes to New York to find Ellen who is now nine years old, and still property of The Sands. She is now owned by the Sands’s cousin, Mrs. Hobbs. While in New York she gets a job as a nurse maid for the Bruces who are very kind to her. Linda find out that Dr. Flint is aware about her wherabouts and escapes to Boston, where she is reunited with Benny. Now Dr. Flint claims that the slave trade was unofficial and now Linda is terrified that they will all end up back with the Flints. A few years later Mrs. Bruce dies and Linda gets to spend time living with her children in Boston. She is still taking care of her daughter, and moves to London for a year a experience life without racial prejudice. When Linda returns to Boston, Benny goes to California with her brother William, and Benny enrolls in boarding school. Linda cares for Mr. Bruces new baby by his new wife. After Dr. Flint dies, Emily who is the legal owner of Linda asks her to come home because she is her property. After the Fugitive Slave act is passed, her life became more dangerous because if she is caught she goes straight back to her owner even if she is in free land.
6. Ending When Linda finds out that Emily Flint and her husband Mr. Dodge arrive in the north she escapes once again with the help of Mrs. Bruce, and send her baby with her. When the people who are coming to capture her don’t succeed Mrs. Bruce offers to buy her, but she refuses simply that she doesn’t want to be ‘bought’ but Mrs. Bruce buys her anyways and gives her freedom. She is mad but still thankful that now she is free. She goes back to the south to her grandmother, but Aunt Martha soon dies afterward. Then in a newspaper she sees the obituary that her unlce Phillip died. That is very rare to see the obituary of a slave. In the end she decides to still live with Mrs. Bruce but doesn’t realize that she still would like to have had her own personal freedom, like living in her own home with her children. But she lives on with her grandmothers memories that helped her survive what she went through, and that is what all she needs now.
7. Pictures A slave girl getting Auctioned off Harriet Jacobs Aka ‘Linda Brent’ The book cover
