Harriet Jacobs writes her atrocious story in the autobiographical book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. He writes the following; "Slavery is terrible for men; but it is much more terrible for women" (Jacobs, 88). Through her work, Jacobs shows that the evils of slavery are worse for a woman precisely because of her gender. She exemplifies the imbalance in what society dictated was the appropriate role for women in the nineteenth century. As well as how this contradicted slavery and therefore prevented women from performing exactly these roles. The incidents in a slave's life highlight these double standards imposed on white women and black women. White women versus black women is a major theme throughout the book with Harriet Jacobs at the center. Another important theme in the book is virtue and Jacobs uses herself to describe how difficult it was for a black slave to maintain it. Circumstances prevented her from maintaining her much-loved virtue and caused conflict within herself. For women of that time, expectations lay in four areas: obedience, purity, domesticity and religiosity. However, the conditions in which female slaves lived were completely contrary to these virtues and standards established by society. Slaves were denied any of these virtues resulting in the loss of their identity; their sense of femininity. This was another way that slavery eliminated the values ​​of slaves. And a constant struggle for Jacobs throughout the book; he wants to remain faithful to his beliefs. Her inability to stay true to her beliefs makes her feel guilty and insecure about her decisions. Religiosity was considered very important in that era, however to be pious and gain religious insight you would need to be... halfway... Jacobs refuses to let his master destroy his body and soul and subsequently suffers greatly to escape its claws. Slavery could best be described as the complete annihilation of individual being. Female slaves would be stripped of their sense of self and forced into complete submission. This submission was something Jacobs could not live with and felt was unfair. With the threat of his religiosity, purity and domesticity he rose up and rebelled. These were the areas that were believed to constitute a woman in the 1800s, but also exactly the areas that a slave was denied from purchasing or practicing. Looking at Harriet Jacobs' experiences throughout her life and described in Incidents in the Life of a Slave it is fair to say that she wanted to remain true to her morals, however circumstances prevented her from doing so..