I change the first paragragh to make it more conclusive and attractive for the audience to understand what I am talking about from the very beginning. 

Ethos always shows a person’s characteristics and beliefs, which leads to the feelings and actions they have. Nearly every novel detaily portrays the main characters with ethos to pave the way for the following important plots, to show why the characters do things and how the stories finally end as the novels write. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Linda makes the decision to hide in her grandmother’s loft and finally escape to north with her children, which was quite hard to make for the enslaved people at that time since few of them can read or know about the situation in north; all they see in their entire life may just be other enslaved people suffer and suffer and die. The escaping enslaved people also would be punished heavily and be put into the jail. What’s more, Linda’s grandmother, who wants all her children and grandchildren stay together as a whole family, doesn’t want her to do so. I want to analyze that how Jacob portray the ethos of her main character——Linda, to pave the way for the eventual decision.

The first crucial decision Linda makes in her life when she was young, which shows her independence and wish to be a free person at the very beginning, is described in Chapter 1: Childhood, “I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away”. Linda has two identifications about herself: one is a slave, which is told by others after she is six; one is a normal free person, which is her own feeling before six. And since she learns read and write, she is intelligent enough to think about her own life: “I was now old enough (twelve) to begin to think of the future; and again and again I asked myself what they would do with me.”

Clearly, Linda thinks deeply about her life and her identification——she chooses a normal free person. So the readers of the book should view her as an autonomous decision-maker, instead of a normal enslaved person who was owned by others. The readers are attracted by her two controversial identities. Linda’s decision shows her ethos as minded and independent. As she writes in Chapter 18: Months of Peril, “Give me liberty, or give me death”, she wants liberty deeply in her heart, which is one of the main reasons she escapes to the North.

Linda also shows maternal instinct as a mother of two children. She shows her deep love and responsible for her two kids from the beginning of their lives——“I had often prayed for death; but now I did not want to die, unless my child could die too.” （Chapter 11. The New Tie to Life）We can feel the strong feelings just from the chapter name “the new tie to life” and “another link to life”. Even when she is hiding from the searching of Dr. Flint, she cares a lot about her kids: “I had done all in my power to make my children comfortable during the time I expected to be separated from them.” (Chapter 16, Scenes at the Plantation) Her behaviors also make contrast to the male characters who abandon everything to escape.

As Pittman says, moral characters of motherhood are essential to show that enslaved women’s womanhood (Black Women Writers and the Trouble with Ethos: Harriet Jacobs, Billie Holiday, and Sister Souljah): they are normal women just like the free white women, they should be and deserve to be treated fairly. The author attracts readers by the tense and twisted plots here, showing the difficult situation Linda has. But even in this kind of situation, she still cares and worries about her children, which is not surprising for the readers when Linda decides to take the children with her to escape, since she knows what will happen to them form the experiences of other enslaved people. In Chapter 3: The Slaves’ New Year’s Day, Linda sees the miserable destiny she may face in the future. “I saw a mother lead seven children to the auction-block. She knew that some of them would be taken from her; but they took all. The children were sold to a slave-trader, and their mother was brought by a man in her own town. Before night her children were all far away.” Linda saw a poor enslaved mother lose all her children hopelessly: “she wrung her hands in anguish, and exclaimed, ‘Gone! All gone! Why don't God kill me?’”

Linda shows her spirit of resistance and willing to protect her purity under the threat and pressure from her “owner”, Dr. Flint. To make the contrast, the author shows her fear and despairs when she faces the punishment, torment and threat from Dr. Flint who force her to have a sexual relationship as early as she was 15. As she says, “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own.” (Chapter 14: Another Link to Life) She is not in the shadow of law, but abandoned by it. “But, O, ye happy women, whose purity has been sheltered from childhood, who have been free to choose the objects of your affection, whose homes are protected by law, do not judge the poor desolate slave girl too severely!” She feels sad and guilty to sleep with Mr. Sand in order to avoiding being raped by Dr. Flint. “If slavery had been abolished, I, also, could have married the man of my choice; I could have had a home shielded by the laws; and I should have been spared the painful task of confessing what I am now about to relate; but all my prospects had been blighted by slavery. I wanted to keep myself pure; and, under the most adverse circumstances, I tried hard to preserve my self-respect; but I was struggling alone in the powerful grasp of the demon Slavery; and the monster proved too strong for me. I felt as if I was forsaken by God and man; as if all my efforts must be frustrated; and I became reckless in my despair.” (Chapter 10: A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life) The long internal monologue shows her deep feelings of fear and sadness. As an enslaved person, she can do nearly nothing to protect herself. The audience of this part is free women, attracting them by despair experience they never know, how bad and dark is slavery.

As Yellin mentions, the author reveals that “the model of sexual behavior mandated for free white women was forbidden to black slave women”. (Legacy profile Harriet Ann Jacobs) That’s the twist point she decided to be with Mr. Sand, for the reason at least she can choose who to sleep with. She shows both ideas of abolition and feminism, as Braxton says (The Re-definition of the Slave Narrative Genre), by showing the invasive sexuality from the white owners of the enslaved people. With all the unfair and oppressed life she has and the future unfair life her children may have, she finally decides to escape to the north with her children to begin new and liberal life.

However, there is no denying that potential arguments exist. The most notable potential arguments may go against my opinion is that Linda may just revolt her destiny instead of enduring like other enslaved people because she learns much and is able to read and write while most enslaved people don’t. Chapter 7: What Slaves Are Taught to Think of the North shows that many enslaved people are ignorant about things in north. “One woman begged me to get a newspaper and read it over. She said her husband told her that the black people had sent word to the queen of 'Merica that they were all slaves; that she didn't believe it, and went to Washington city to see the president about it. They quarrelled; she drew her sword upon him, and swore that he should help her to make them all free.” Most enslaved people are like this woman——they are too ignorant to understand there is another choice for them instead of quietly suffering for their entire lives. As Linda says, “That poor, ignorant woman thought that America was governed by a Queen, to whom the President was subordinate. I wish the President was subordinate to Queen Justice.”

Most enslaved people are so ignorant and know nearly nothing about the situation in the north that they don’t even have the idea or believe that they can escape. They can’t read or write. The only thing they know about escaping is from their owners that they will get heavy punishment and be put into the jails if they do so. They don’t have the chance like Linda to learn the relatively freedom in the north nor have so many friends and relatives to help them to escape to the north.

Reference

1. Jacobs, H. (1861)., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, online version on pagebypagebooks.com
2. Pittman, C. (2007)., Black Women Writers and the Trouble with Ethos: Harriet Jacobs, Billie Holiday, and Sister Souljah
3. Yellin, J.A., (1988)., Legacy profile Harriet Ann Jacobs
4. Braxton, J.M., (1986)., The Re-definition of the Slave Narrative Genre