Quotes from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Reader, did you ever hate? I hope not. I never did but once; and I trust I never shall again. Somebody has called it "the atmosphere of hell"; and I believe it is so.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“There is something akin to freedom in having a lover who has no control over you, except that which he gains by kindness and attachment”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“God judges men by their hearts, not by the color of their skins.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“My Master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will. There is might in each.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Would that I had more ability! But my heart is so full, and my pen is so weak!”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“The brightest skies are always foreshadowed by dark clouds”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“There are wrongs which even the grave does not bury.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“He grew vexed and asked if poverty and hardships with freedom, were not preferable to our treatment in slavery...No, I will not stay. Let them bring me back. We don't die but once.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“the scripture says "oppression makes it even a wise man mad"...”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“She may be an ignorant creature, degraded by the system that has brutalized her from childhood; but she has a mother's instincts, and is capable of feeling a mother's agonies.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Why allow the tendrils of the heart to twine around objects which may at any moment be wrenched away”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“No, I did not think of him. When a man is hunted like a wild beast he forgets there is a God, a heaven. He forgets every thing in his struggle to get beyond the reach of the bloodhounds.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“They all spoke kindly of my dead mother, who had been a slave merely in name, but in nature was noble and womanly.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Cruelty is contagious in uncivilized communities.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Women are considered of no value, unless they continually increase their owner's stock. They are put on a par with animals. This same master shot a woman through the head, who had run away and been brought back to him. No one called him to account for it. If a slave resisted being whipped, the bloodhounds were unpacked, and set upon him, to tear his flesh from his bones. The master who did these things was highly educated, and styled a perfect gentleman. He also boasted the name and standing of a Christian, though Satan never had a truer follower. I”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“I resolved not to be conquered again.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Satan's church is here below; Up to God's free church I hope to go.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“What does he know of the half-starved wretches toiling from dawn till dark on the plantations? of mothers shrieking for their children, torn from their arms by slave traders? of young girls dragged down into moral filth? of pools of blood around the whipping post? of hounds trained to tear human flesh?”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“I can testify, from my own experience and observation, that slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the blacks. It makes white fathers cruel and sensual; the sons violent and licentious; it contaminates the daughters, and makes the wives wretched.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Yet few slaveholders seem to be aware of the widespread moral ruin occasioned by this wicked system. Their talk is of blighted cotton crops--not of the blight on their children's souls.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“There are no bonds so strong as those which are formed by suffering together.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Ah, if he had ever been a slave he would have known how difficult it was to trust white men.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Moreover, they thought he had spoiled his children, by teaching them to feel that they were human beings.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Take courage, Willie; brighter days will come by and by.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“I admit that the black man is inferior. But what is it that makes him so? It is the ignorance in which white men compel him to live;”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Do you know that I have a right to do as I like with you,—that I can kill you, if I please?" "You”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“They had never felt slavery; and, when it was too late, they were convinced of its reality. When”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Reader, did you ever hate? I hope not. I never did but once; and I trust I never shall again. Somebody has called it "the atmosphere of hell;" and I believe it is so.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“As I was about to open the street door, Sally laid her hand on my shoulder, and said, "Linda, is you gwine all”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“It seemed as if I were born to bring sorrow on all who befriended me, and that was the bitterest drop in the bitter cup of my life.”
― Harriet Ann Jacobs, quote from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

About the author

Popular quotes

“She leaned over him to pull the waistband of his flannel pants down. His erection popped out, startling her.
"Oh!" She fell across his thighs. "Oh my. Good heavens."
He groaned and dragged his hands down his face.
"Ye needna stare at it in horror. It willna harm you."
"Its . . . really big."

He snorted. "It comes in peace.”
― Kerrelyn Sparks, quote from Vampire Mine

“Man differs more from man than man from beast”
― John Wilmot, quote from The Complete Poems

“And then I cried a flood of tears as if I really were a mermaid who had absorbed too much sea into herself. The tears spilled like a balm, like a potion, like a charm. In them swam a little girl whose father was dying without ever having seen her. In them swam a girl whose mother’s magic – the only thing the girl envied more than anything else in the world, the thing that had made her invisible, the most precious thing –might be dying too. In them swam a green-haired girl who had never been touched by the boy to whom she was so devoted that she would have lived with him forever in a shack by the sea or a ruined sand castle even if he never made love to her. My tears were for me, but they were also for him. They were to wash away the thing that had frightened him so much so long ago. The wound inside his thigh. My tears poured out of me and he drank them down his throat. He drank them in gulps deep into himself, swallowing sorrow.
Someday,” he said, “when we are ready, I will give you back your tears.”
― Francesca Lia Block, quote from Echo

“Compassion is a coat of fur I find particularly ill-fitting.”
― Ron Currie Jr., quote from God Is Dead

“There are only a very few cop clichés that are necessary for saying almost anything to the press. That is one reason, of course, that a talking suit like Captain Matthews could become good enough at it to rise up to his lofty rank based solely on his ability to memorize them all and then put them in the right order when standing in front of a camera. It was really not even a skill, since it took a great deal less ability than the simplest card trick. Still, it was a talent Deborah did not have, not even a little, and trying to explain it to her was like describing plaid to a blind person. Altogether it was a nasty and unpleasant interlude, and by the time we headed down to the press conference I was nearly as sweaty and frazzled as my sister. Neither of us felt any better when we saw the standing-room-only crowd of salivating predators waiting for us. For a moment Deborah froze in place, one foot raised in the air. But then, as if somebody had flipped a switch, the reporters turned on her and began their routine of shouting questions and taking pictures, and as I saw Deborah clamp her jaw and frown, I took a deep breath. She’s going to be all right, I thought, and I watched her climb to the podium with something like pride in my creation. Of”
― Jeff Lindsay, quote from Dexter Is Delicious

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.