Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Chapter 27 Summary & Analysis

Mr. Sands has brought a wife back from the North, and Mrs. Flint threatens to inform her that he’s been involved with an “artful devil” and has two illegitimate children. Before she has the chance to do so, Mrs. Sands runs into Benny on the street and remarks on his good looks; Mr. Sands confesses that he is the father, but his wife is understanding, and asks to see the children at their house.

Grandmother is anxious at this development but has to agree to the request, as the children are still not free. Mrs. Sands’s sister, who is visiting, likes Ellen so much that she offers to adopt her; Mrs. Sands wants to adopt Benjamin. When Linda learns of this offer, she is distraught. She knows that it seems good for her children to be raised by prosperous families, but she also knows “how lightly slaveholders held such parental relations.” Even if they were informally adopted, the children could be sold at any time. She’s determined to see them formally emancipated.

Grandmother visits Mr. Sands, reminding him that Linda is still very much alive and does not want to see her children adopted. He says that Linda may “decide their fate” as she wants. Apparently, he has in fact freed the children, but Dr. Flint is now trying to claim that as they legally belonged to his daughter, his sale of them was not actually valid.

For her safety, Mr. Sands suggests sending Ellen to live with his cousin in Brooklyn, where she can go to school and be taken care of. It’s a good arrangement, but Linda still feels as if her children are caught between two masters. On the way to New York, Ellen is to accompany the Sands family as a nursemaid to Mrs. Sands’s new baby. Linda hates to think of her among strangers, working as a servant for her own sister.

Linda is desperate to see Ellen face-to-face before she departs. Her family warns against it, since Ellen is so young and may be incapable of keeping the secret, but Linda is sure that her character is strong. In the dead of night, she descends from the garret and goes into Ellen’s room. At first the girl is shy and confused, but then she embraces Linda and says how much she and Benny have missed her. She is scared to leave her family and live among strangers, and she wants Linda to come with her.

Linda reassures Ellen that some day they will all live together again in the North. Mother and daughter nestle in bed all night long, not knowing if they will ever be reunited again. When Linda has to go back to the shed at dawn, Ellen kisses her and promises never to tell her secret. In the morning she hears the girl responding with perfect composure when the neighbors express their hope that she’ll find her mother in the North.

When the Flints find out that Ellen has been sent away, they are very disgruntled. Mrs. Flint says that Mr. Sands has shown bad character by acknowledging his enslaved children, and says that taking Ellen away is an act of theft from her daughter. Linda is astounded that she thinks it moral for her daughter to “steal my children” but not for Mr. Sands to take care of his own.

Linda goes weeks without hearing anything about Ellen. Grandmother sends letters to Washington and Brooklyn, but no one responds. Linda feels betrayed by Mr. Sands, who had once spoken to her “protectingly and persuasively” but has now “broken and cast away” his obligations to her. She remarks that many Southern Congressmen have enslaved children but wish to ignore them as much as possible out of fear for their reputation.

After six months a letter arrives from Mr. Sands’s cousin, Mrs. Hobbs. She says that she will send Ellen to school, but adds that her cousin “has given her to me” as a maid. Linda is confused and disturbed—she doesn’t actually have any proof that Mr. Sands has freed Ellen, and it’s possible that he has actually given her to this woman. She tries to remind herself of Mr. Sands’s good character but remembers grimly that “slavery perverted all the natural feelings of the human heart.”