Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Harriet missed her brother, William, who had accompanied his master Mr. Sands to Washington, DC. Though, Mr. Sands wrote to Martha, praising her for raising William, who had traveled throughout Canada and the Northern states without allowing abolitionists to coax him away, in reality, Mr. Sands return to the South in the company of a new bride but without William. The abolitionists had convinced him to leave his master.

Harriet wanted her brother to be free, but she also worried about what effect his decision would have on her children. An elderly slave named Aggie encouraged Martha to rejoice in the news. Aggie had seen her own children sold away “to parts unknown” (201), but Martha knew where William was—he was free. Aggie’s words made Harriet also realize that her brother’s safety was just as important as that of her children.

Soon thereafter, the family received a letter from William, who hoped that, after he earned enough money, his grandmother would come North so that the family could be together.

Mr. Sands claimed that he had intended to free William in five years and that William had been lured away by abolitionists. In Mr. Sands’s telling, William’s escape was accomplished through a ruse: William left Astor House “with a trunk on his shoulder” (203), telling Mr.