Harriet A. Jacobs is an important figure in American history as one of the first women slaves to publish a first person narrative of her experiences. "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" expresses the unspoken life of the slave through Jacobs' own experiences in North Carolina under the hands of a ruthless owner who was cruel and abusive to her. Jacobs describes not only her experiences as a slave, but her multiple attempts to escape until finally making safe passage North, where she would eventually become an abolitionist speaker and reformer.