In Jacobs’, The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Linda’s “girlhood” seems to begin at the start of the novel, which is her early childhood. Even through the death of her mother, her mistress, and her father, this idea of girlhood remains intact. She has a sense of purity and innocence- and most of all hope that she will have a real sense of girlhood in the future. This sense of hope was reinforced when she met her lover; she had freedom and love right at her fingertips. Her lover was free and could buy her off of Dr. Flint if he agreed to sell her. It was not until he refused to sell her and she had to say goodbye to he lover as he left for a free state, saying the “the dream of my girlhood was over” (66).
The meaning of girlhood for Linda wasn’t necessarily being free, but the hope that one day she could be free and find love. It is the same as having a crush and hoping one day they like us back. It is hoping to have a job that you love or living in your favorite place. This idea of girlhood was nothing new and something most people understand and have gone through. However, for Linda these reasonable hopes and dreams were made impossible because of her skin color and were ripped away from her at the young age of 15, causing her girlhood to truly end.
Black Matter 