According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, freedom can be defined as the quality or state of being free: as liberation from slavery or from the compulsion or power of another. During the 1800s, there were thousands of slaves in the southern region of the United States who hoped to achieve a state of liberation. One of those slaves was a young woman named Harriet Jacobs. She became the author of a slave narrative titled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, describing her life as a slave under the pseudonym Linda Brent. I believe that Harriet Jacobs used Linda Brent to tell her story not only to protect those involved, such as her children and her grandmother, but also because she was an escaped slave and had been under constant threat of being tracked down and having her the freedom that was taken away from her. As with most enslaved people at that time, freedom meant everything to Harriet Jacobs. For Harriet Jacobs, freedom meant having individual liberties, but more importantly having the somatic right to choose what happens to her body and who gets to claim it, if at all. Finding out exactly what these freedoms meant to her will mean taking a look at her story through Linda. To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look at what the conditions and life of the slaves were. It is no secret that African American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific sufferings experienced by slaves, Linda Brent stated, "No pen can give an adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." plantation where she lived and the mast...... middle of paper ......Having this modicum of freedom in choosing who would be the father of her children was important to Linda Brent and she risked shame his family foul., and in doing so he had found a certain individual freedom. Ultimately, I believe that Linda Brent's somatic rights were more important to her than anything else. She grew up knowing full well that, as a woman, her body automatically belonged to someone else; whether it was her master or whatever mate he chose for her, Linda continually fought and rebelled against this idea. Although she could have had a nice and comfortable cottage for herself by being Dr. Flint's mistress, she chose the opposite and more challenging because it is long. with that cottage would come the constant torment of owing him her body. Linda sacrificed everything to free herself from this anguish, including hiding and isolating herself for 7 years.