In her novel, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs reflects on her relationship with her master, using touch to highlight slave women’s experience with sexual abuse. Jacobs’ manipulation of touch both exposes the sexual vulnerability of black women and highlights her cunning defensiveness to the violence of imposed white male dominance. As a young girl, Jacobs is subjected to the sexual will of Mr. Flint, and quickly becomes the target of Mrs. Flint’s jealousy and resentment. In attempt to break free from the untenable situation that has evolved around her, she takes advantage of the thing she still holds power over in her relationship with her master—her body. Jacobs recounts, “I knew nothing would enrage Dr. Flint so much as to know that I favored another; and it was something to triumph over my tyrant even in that small way. I thought he would revenge himself by selling me, and I was sure my friend, Mr. Sands, would buy me” (Jacobs, 49). Her scheme highlights her inability to act according to her own inclinations as a chaste woman in addition to exposing the nuances of male dominance. At this moment, it seems that the only escape from this overtly abusive relationship is for her to jump into a less unwilling but still exploitive relationship with a kinder slave owner. She uses the physical relationship with another man, the touch of foreign fingers, as leverage to escape her current state. Additionally, her ability to successfully get under her master’s skin with evidence of her sexual subversion—her pregnancy—gives her the upper hand, if only for a moment, in this torturous relationship. Her ability to manipulate touch as a tool for revenge helps classify Jacobs as a cunning woman, capable of much more than her master gives her credit for.
I have explored how Jacobs manipulated touch to benefit her situation within the chattel world. How might she have manipulated other senses like sight in the same way?