Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Harriet overheard the younger Mr. Flint say to a neighbor that he was determined to “take the town notions out of [Harriet’s] head,” and that his father had done a poor job of breaking her in (133). Harriet was soon working incessantly on Mr. Flint’s plantation. She dreaded the idea of her daughter Ellen being beaten as she had seen Mr. Flint beat other children on the plantation. When Ellen broke down from emotional distress, Mr. Flint, in an unusual act of kindness, provided Ellen with a biscuit and milk to help her sleep. Assuming this meant Flint was grooming Ellen for sexual assault, Harriet sent Ellen to her grandmother without Flint’s permission, pleading Ellen’s illness. He let Harriet’s action pass unpunished.

After three weeks, Harriet snuck away with a guide to visit her grandmother. Her children were quietly asleep when she arrived. Halfway back to the plantation, Harriet and her guide hid behind a tree, narrowly avoiding four slave patrollers.

Mr. Flint’s great aunt, Miss Fanny—the same woman who had paid $50 to get Grandmother Martha off the auction block—had tea with Martha and spoke of old times. In the past, Mrs. Flint had also taken tea with Martha, but after Harriet became the object of Dr.