Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Linda would rather her children grow up paupers in Ireland, where they can pursue a morally righteous life, than as slaves whose “wish to be virtuous” is treated as a crime.

Mrs. Flint has understood her husband’s character for years, and could use this knowledge to protect her slaves, but she has only suspicion and anger towards them. She watches her husband constantly, but he finds ways to get to Linda undetected, for example sending her inappropriate letters once he finds out she can write, or forcing her to fan him while he eats and to listen “to such language as he saw fit to address to me.”

Mrs. Flint becomes more and more angry at her husband. In order to get Linda alone, Dr. Flint decides to move his youngest daughter’s crib into his own suite of rooms and force Linda to sleep there as well (prior to this Linda had slept near Aunt Nancy, gaining some protection by the woman’s presence). When Mrs. Flint finds out about this, she forces Linda to swear truthfulness on a Bible and questions her about her husband.

Linda tells the truth, feeling sad for the obvious grief and humiliation Mrs. Flint displays. However, she knows that while the woman “pitied herself as a martyr” she can’t feel anything “for the condition of shame and misery” in which Linda lives. Linda knows Mrs. Flint will never be kind to her, but she hopes for some protection. Indeed, the mistress forces Dr. Flint to abandon his new sleeping arrangements.

Instead, Linda has to sleep in Mrs. Flint’s room. Linda is often terrified to find the older woman leaning over her while she sleeps or whispering in her ear; she even begins to worry that one night she’ll be killed. Sometimes Mrs. Flint confronts Dr. Flint with the evidence of his crimes, but he simply responds that “you tortured [Linda] into exposing me.” It’s clear that Mrs. Flint, decades younger than her husband, has no idea how to resolve the situation, and Linda pities her, knowing that Dr. Flint is the father of eleven slaves.

Suspecting what’s going on, Grandmother tries to buy Linda, but Dr. Flint always refuses, saying that she rightly belongs to his daughter. Linda says that his scrupulousness in this matter is ironic due to his total lack of moral conscience. Dr. Flint often threatens to sell Linda away from the city, or tells her that she’s ungrateful for the care he’s given her. He tells her that he will “make a lady of” her if she submits to him.

The terrible situation Linda is describing is typical of many Southern homes. She can’t believe that Northerners cooperate with this brutality by hunting fugitive slaves and permitting their recapture. It’s also astonishing that they permit their daughters to marry planters, only to discover their illegitimate “children of every shade of complexion” playing with their own. Such households are almost always corrupted by immorality and jealousy.

There are a few exceptions to this trend. Linda knows two wives who pressured their husbands into freeing their illegitimate children and, by “displaying their superior nobleness” of their character, earned their husbands’ respect and improved their marriage.