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Harriet Jacobs [a] (1813 or 1815 [b] – March 7, 1897) was an African-American abolitionist and writer whose autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, is now considered an "American classic".
Harriet Jacobs (born 1813, Edenton, North Carolina, U.S.—died March 7, 1897, Washington, D.C.) was an American abolitionist and autobiographer who crafted her own experiences into Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1861), an eloquent and uncompromising slave narrative.
- Early Years: Life in Slavery
- Freeing Herself from Enslavement
- 'Incidents in The Life of A Slave Girl'
- Later Years
- Legacy
- Sources
Harriet Jacobs was enslaved from birthin Edenton, North Carolina, in 1813. Her father, Elijah Knox, was an enslaved biracial house carpenter controlled by Andrew Knox. Her mother, Delilah Horniblow, was an enslaved Black woman controlled by a local tavern owner. Due to laws at the time, a mother’s status as “free” or “enslaved” was passed onto thei...
When Norcom found out about Jacobs’ relationship with Sawyer, he became violent toward her. Because Norcom still controlled Jacobs, he controlled her children as well. He threatened to sell her children and raise them as plantation workers if she refused his sexual advances. If Jacobs fled, the children would remain with their grandmother, living i...
An abolitionist named Amy Post urged Jacobs to tell her life story to help those still in bondage, particularly women. Though Jacobs had learned to read during her enslavement, she had never mastered writing. She began to teach herself how to write, publishing several anonymous letters to the "New York Tribune," with Amy Post’s help. Jacobs eventua...
After the Civil War, Jacobs reunited with her children. In her later years, she devoted her life to distributing relief supplies, teaching, and providing health care as a social worker. She eventually returned to her childhood home in Edenton, North Carolina, to help support the recently freed enslaved people of her hometown. She died in 1897 in Wa...
Jacobs’ book, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," made an impact in the abolitionist community at the time. However, it was forgotten by history in the wake of the Civil War. The scholar Jean Fagan Yellin later rediscovered the book. Struck by the fact that it had been written by a formerly enslaved woman, Yellin championed Jacobs' work. The b...
“About Harriet Jacobs Biography.” Historic Edenton State Historic Site, Edenton, NC. Andrews, William L. “Harriet A. Jacobs (Harriet Ann), 1813-1897.” Documenting the American South, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2019. “Harriet Jacobs.” PBS Online, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 2019. "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." ...
- Nadra Kareem Nittle
Feb 15, 2007 · While living in Boston, Jacobs joined the New England women’s club movement and supported herself by running a boarding house for Harvard students and faculty. She and Louisa later moved to Washington, D.C., where she died on March 7, 1897. She was 84 at the time of her death.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by herself is an autobiography by Harriet Jacobs, a mother and fugitive slave, published in 1861 by L. Maria Child, who edited the book for its author. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent.
- Harriet A. Jacobs
- 1861
In 1842 Jacobs escaped to the North by boat, determined to reclaim her daughter from Sawyer, who had sent her to Brooklyn, New York, to work as a house servant. For ten years after her escape from North Carolina, Harriet Jacobs lived the tense and uncertain life of a fugitive slave.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, autobiographical narrative published in 1861 by Harriet Jacobs, an abolitionist who described her experiences while enslaved in North Carolina.
