The book is the author's biography, focused on her time as a slave in South Carolina, as well as her escape and what came after. Jacobs describes how her owner and other slaveholders would harass, assault, and rape the female slaves around the plantations. Her owner repeatedly harasses her and tries to force her into having sex with him, both personally and by threatening to punish Jacobs' family. In addition to this, her owner's wife reacts by punishing Jacobs for this perceived transgression. Jacobs is ultimately protected from her owner's advances by the fact that he fears her grandmother, a former slave who is universally respected even by the white people in the community.