Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl · Chapter
Still in Prison explained
Linda Brent endures another year in her tiny garret, suffering through heat, cold, illness, and the torment of being unable to help her children or grandmother.
What happens
Linda Brent endures another year in her tiny garret, suffering through heat, cold, illness, and the torment of being unable to help her children or grandmother. She witnesses the brutal realities of slavery from her hiding place, including a mother and baby sold away and a wet nurse driven to suicide. Her own health deteriorates, and she falls dangerously ill, cared for by William and Uncle Phillip. Grandmother falls gravely ill, and Mrs. Flint's cruel hypocrisy is exposed when she visits only out of social obligation and wishes harm on Linda's son Benny after he is bitten by a dog. Grandmother eventually recovers, bringing Linda relief.
Themes in this chapter
Dehumanization and Identity
Linda's physical confinement and loss of speech, the slave woman driven to suicide, and the sale of a mother and baby all illustrate how slavery strips individuals of humanity and agency.
Hypocrisy of Religion and Morality
Mrs. Flint's 'Christian' visit to grandmother and her wish for Benny's death expose the moral hypocrisy of slaveholders who claim piety while perpetuating cruelty.
Characters to notice
- Linda Brent
Endures extreme physical and emotional suffering in the garret, including illness, delirium, and helplessness as she watches her family struggle.
- Grandmother
Breaks down under the weight of anxiety and toil, falls critically ill, and is visited reluctantly by Mrs. Flint; eventually recovers.
- William
Cares for Linda during her illness, fetches a Thompsonian doctor by describing her symptoms as his own, and helps nurse her back to consciousness.
- Phil
Watches tenderly over Linda during her illness and later brings her the joyful news that grandmother will recover.
- Mrs. Flint
Visits grandmother only out of social pressure and Christian condescension, and cruelly expresses gladness that Benny was bitten by a dog.
Key passages
“I asked myself how many more summers and winters I must be condemned to spend thus.”
Linda wonders how many more years she will be forced to remain in hiding.
Reflects her despair and uncertainty about the duration of her imprisonment.
“Yet the laws allowed him to be out in the free air, while I, guiltless of crime, was pent up here, as the only means of avoiding the cruelties the laws allowed him to inflict upon me!”
The law protects Dr. Flint's freedom while forcing Linda to hide to escape his legalized abuse.
Highlights the injustice of a legal system that enables slaveholder cruelty.
“To escape the degradation and the torture, she rushed to the river, jumped in, and ended her wrongs in death.”
A slave woman, ordered to be whipped, drowns herself rather than endure the punishment.
Illustrates the extreme desperation and lack of options for enslaved women.
“I'm glad of it. I wish he had killed him. It would be good news to send to his mother. Her day will come. The dogs will grab her yet.”
Mrs. Flint says she is glad Linda's son Benny was bitten by a dog and hopes he had died, threatening Linda's own fate.
Reveals Mrs. Flint's deep malice and lack of Christian charity despite her outward piety.