Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl · Chapter
III: The Slaves’ New Year’s Day explained
This chapter describes the annual hiring day and slave sales that occur on New Year's Day in the South.
What happens
This chapter describes the annual hiring day and slave sales that occur on New Year's Day in the South. It contrasts the joy of free women with the anguish of enslaved mothers who fear their children will be sold away. The chapter includes a harrowing account of a mother whose seven children are all sold to a trader, and an old woman left to be sold after seventy years of service.
Themes in this chapter
Motherhood and Family Separation
The chapter vividly depicts the agony of enslaved mothers facing the sale of their children, exemplified by the mother who led seven children to the auction block and lost them all.
Dehumanization and Identity
Enslaved people are treated as property to be hired or sold, waiting 'like criminals' to hear their doom, and old slaves are discarded after a lifetime of service.
Characters to notice
- Linda Brent
Narrator who describes the horrors of New Year's Day for enslaved people, including witnessing a mother's children sold away.
- Dr. Flint
Mentioned as owning a fine residence, several farms, and about fifty slaves.
Key passages
“On one of these sale days, 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.”
Linda witnessed a mother bringing her seven children to be sold, expecting to lose only a few, but all were taken away.
Illustrates the brutal reality of family separation during slave sales.
“I met that mother in the street, and her wild, haggard face lives today in my mind. She wrung her hands in anguish, and exclaimed, 'Gone! All gone! Why don’t God kill me?'”
Linda recalls the mother's anguished face and her cry of despair after losing all her children.
Highlights the emotional trauma of a mother whose children were sold away.