Incidents in the Life of a Slave is a memoir written by Harriet Jacobs in which she explains the hardships experienced by African Americans under slavery. Slaves were defined as property and inferior to white men, this gave their owners the right, under the law, to treat them however they wanted, to deny them basic human rights, and to deny them their freedom. To protect their families, many slaves fled to the free states, but they soon realized that segregation existed between African Americans and white Americans, as well as extradition laws that would send fugitive slaves back to their owners in the South. It was almost impossible to resist slavery as the slaves had no rights, their lives were controlled by someone else and if the slaves escaped to the Free the slaves had to be obedient otherwise they would be punished or killed. This was the case with Luke, a friend of Jacobs who, according to her, one day offended his master, slave owner and planter, Mr. Litch, and was stripped of his clothes one winter night, whipped and tied to a tree for several hours. Since slaves had no rights, the only way to avoid mistreatment was to always be obedient. At the young age of fifteen, Harriet Jacobs faced sexual harassment inflicted by her owner, Dr. Flint. “I was forced to live under the same roof with him where I saw a man forty years my senior daily violate nature's most sacred commandment” (26). Jacobs saw her morals and innocence corrupted by these men but because she was a slave she had to obey. Slaves could not defend themselves from cruel punishments, and Harriet Jacobs, like many other slaves, could not avoid sexual harassment by their owners. The slaves could not resist because they had no right to defend themselves. Harriet Jacobs' memoir explained the life of a slave, as property, they had no rights and after escaping to the northern states, many of them were still persecuted and brought back to the south. Slaves were described by laws as property, so they could not own property, and many lost the opportunity to gain the freedom of their family members. Runaways in the free states were vulnerable and could be claimed by their owners in the South. Slaves lacked basic human rights and could not defend themselves from punishment or sexual harassment by their owners. Fugitives in the Northern states would encounter segregation and constant persecution from slave owners and kidnappers, so African Americans could not resist