The Novelization of Gendered Slave Life: A Comparative Study of Solomon Northup's "Twelve Years a Slave" and Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents"

This thesis examines how gender shapes the novelization of enslaved life by comparing two foundational antebellum narratives: Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave (1853) and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). Its central objective is to demonstrate that male and female narrators did not merely recount different experiences of bondage, they also developed distinct narrative strategies, emotional registers, and rhetorical structures in order to translate those experiences into literature. Through a comparative methodology grounded in close reading and supported by historical, theoretical, and feminist material, including William Andrews’s To Tell a Free Story, John Sekora’s “Black Message/White Envelope,” James Olney’s “‘I Was Born’,” Jean Fagan Yellin’s archival research on Jacobs, and Angela Davis’s analyses of Black women’s resistance, the thesis situates each narrative within the broader cultural and political forces that shaped nineteenth century Black authorship. The thesis is articulated into three separate chapters: The first reconstructs the historical and literary development of the slave narrative, tracing its emergence from Enlightenment thought, Protestant autobiography, and abolitionist activism. It shows how white editorial control, authenticating prefaces, and the pressure to prove the truthfulness of their experiences limited early Black voices, while what Andrews calls novelization gradually broadened the genre through greater psychological depth, realistic scene construction, and stronger narrative coherence. Then, the second chapter focuses on gender as a significant force in shaping narrative form. It compares the male centered tradition, represented by Frederick Douglass’s emphasis on literacy, manhood, and heroic escape, with the alternative models offered by Northup and Jacobs. Northup challenges the linear, self fashioning arc typical of male narratives by exploring disorientation, identity loss, and the psychological suffering of enslaved women such as Patsey. Jacobs, by merging testimonial writing with sentimental fiction, articulates forms of violence such as sexual violence, maternal fear, physical vulnerability that the genre had historically silenced. Her narrative redefines resistance through maternal strategy, emotional endurance, and the reclamation of personal autonomy. Lastly, the last chapter analyzes the representation of freedom, showing how its meaning shifts according to gender and narrative purpose. For male narrators, freedom often appears as the culmination of a journey toward independence; however, for Northup, it is fragile and reversible; for Jacobs, instead, it is strictly connected to safety, dignity, and the protection of her children. Both authors conclude with “detached endings” which reject any triumphant closure and instead acknowledge the long-lasting trauma, instability, and prejudice that shape life after emancipation. The thesis concludes that the slave narrative is not a fixed genre but a dynamic literary form whose evolution reflects the historical and gendered conditions around its production. Northup and Jacobs demonstrate that enslaved life could not be contained within a single narrative model: it required multiple forms capable of expressing the psychological, emotional, and social dimensions of bondage. Their works reveal that gender is essential to understanding how enslaved people narrated their lives, imagined freedom, and claimed authority over their stories. Ultimately, they transform personal testimony into an enduring challenge to the moral and cultural foundations of American slavery.