Harriet Jacobs's Response

Diaries were created so that a person would be able to let their thoughts and ideas be known. It is a form of ventilation from the outside world. Harriet Jacobs wrote "Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl" to announce and publicize her story to anyone willing to listen to it. She wanted to open society's eyes to what was really happening to Africans in the world. Jacobs main audience was filled with people who either wanted to hear her story or did not mind listening to it.

Jacobs sought to let her story be known to the few that would want to hear it. In Chapters one, seven, and ten, Jacobs made clear announcements directed towards the audience of her story. "The reader knows that no promise or writing given to a slave is legally binding; for, according to Southern laws, a slave, being property, can hold no property." (Jacobs, 814) In Chapter one, Jacobs made this comment to try and form a relationship between the audience and her, just like a diary. "Reader, did you ever hate?" (Jacobs, 818) Since Jacobs is writing this story for someone who cares about her issues, she includes this sentence to allow the reader to see what feelings Jacobs had to endure during her lifetime slavery. "And now, reader...I have promised to tell you the truth, and I will do it honestly." (Jacobs, 820) Jacobs did not wish to create a story of lies so that society would come to sympathize her. She wrote her story to declare to the world what truthfully was happening to African slaves of her time. Even though she would have loved for the whole world to want to know what truths she had to tell, everyone did not care about her issues or refused to change them.

Jacobs main audience was filled with people who either wanted to hear her story or did not mind listening to it. She wrote this story as if it were her diary. She needed to express her story to someone or something. So, anyone that wished to learn of her story would be warmly welcomed to do so.