Harriet Jacobs - The Kansas City Repertory Theatre

PRE OR POST-SHOW ACTIVITY - CONTINUED
HARRIET JACOBS
LEARNING GUIDE | 2010
In the midst of my illness, grandmother broke down under the weight of anxiety and toil. The
idea of losing her, who had always been my best friend and a mother to my children, was the
sorest trial I had yet had. O, how earnestly I prayed that she might recover! How hard it
seemed, that I could not tend upon her, who had so long and so tenderly watched over me!
One day the screams of a child nerved me with strength to crawl to my peeping-hole, and I
saw my son covered with blood. A fierce dog, usually kept chained, had seized and bitten
him. A doctor was sent for, and I heard the groans and screams of my child while the wounds
were being sewed up. O, what torture to a mother's heart, to listen to this and be unable to
go to him!
But childhood is like a day in spring, alternately shower and sunshine. Before night Benny
was bright and lively, threatening the destruction of the dog; and great was his delight when
the doctor told him the next day that the dog had bitten another boy and been shot. Benny
recovered from his wounds; but it was long before he could walk.
When my grandmother's illness became known, many ladies, who were her customers,
called to bring her some little comforts, and to inquire whether she had every thing she
wanted. Aunt Nancy one night asked permission to watch with her sick mother, and Mrs.
Flint replied, "I don't see any need of your going. I can't spare you." But when she found
other ladies in the neighborhood were so attentive, not wishing to be outdone in Christian
charity, she also sallied forth, in magnificent condescension, and stood by the bedside of her
who had loved her in her infancy, and who had been repaid by such grievous wrongs. She
seemed surprised to find her so ill, and scolded uncle Phillip for not sending for Dr. Flint. She
herself sent for him immediately, and he came. Secure as I was in my retreat, I should have
been terrified if I had known he was so near me. He pronounced my grandmother in a very
critical situation, and said if her attending physician wished it, he would visit her. Nobody
wished to have him coming to the house at all hours, and we were not disposed to give him a
chance to make out a long bill.
As Mrs. Flint went out, Sally told her the reason Benny was lame was, that a dog had bitten
him. "I'm glad of it," she replied. "I wish he had killed him. It would be good news to send to
his mother. Her day will come. The dogs will grab her yet." With these Christian words she
and her husband departed, and, to my great satisfaction, returned no more.
I heard from uncle Phillip, with feelings of unspeakable joy and gratitude, that the crisis was
passed and grandmother would live. I could now say from my heart, "God is merciful. He has
spared me the anguish of feeling that I caused her death."
Kansas City Repertory Theatre: Harriet Jacobs | 27