How (in Chapter X) does Jacobs introduce the narrative of her decision to take a white lover? Why would Jacobs feel the need to make such introductory remarks about this narrative?
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In Chapter Ten, Harriet continues to experience the lustful attention of Dr. Flint, her master. This was one of the most terrible things about slavery: a slaveowner's sexual desire for his slaves caused his own wife emotional duress, made him a rival to his son, forced his daughter to confront the ways of the world far too early, and, of course, destroyed the slave girl. Slave girls could often not live the virtuous lives they wished or participate in a functional familial state (i.e., have a husband and reproduce with him only). Their bodies were viewed as sexual objects that belonged to their master, spaces on which he could enact his most libidinal and primitive sexual desires.
Thankfully, Dr. Flint never actually rapes Harriet; his persecution of her is limited to vile whispering, haunting her steps, and making threats. In order to prevent him from raping her, she decides to engage in sexual relations with a white man who treats her well – Mr. Sands. Harriet is very careful in how she explains this to her readers. Because her intended audience was white women, she had to proceed cautiously in explaining her choice to enter into sexual relations before she was married. While white, middle class women were also limited in their sexuality by the gender norms of the 19th century, black women faced even more censure and criticism of their sexual behavior.
In order to reassure her readers that she was not a harlot, Jacobs first steps outside of the narrative, explaining how "the remembrance fills me with sorrow and shame" (59). It was not a choice she made out of ignorance or recklessness, but she does feel that it was a decision that these women should try to understand. Going even further and making one of the central points of Incidents, she writes "O, ye happy women, whose purity has been sheltered from childhood, who have been free to choose the objects of your affection, whose homes are protected by law, do not judge the poor desolate slave girl too severely!" (60) Even more succinctly, she writes "I feel that the slave woman ought not to be judged by the same standard of others" (62). This is a very important assertion to make; Harriet's tale is controversial in its frank discussion of sex, but she does not want her readers to think that she was condoning premarital sex. She needs to make the case that white women and black women faced unequivocally different situations and should not be privy to the same judgment.