Harriet Jacobs

Harriet Jacobs
Harriet Jacobs in 1894, aged around 81
Jacobs's only known formal photograph, 1894[1]
Born1813 or 1815
Edenton, North Carolina, U.S.
Died(1897-03-07)March 7, 1897 (aged 84)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting placeMount Auburn Cemetery
Occupation
  • Writer
  • nanny
  • relief worker
GenreAutobiography
Notable worksIncidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
ChildrenJoseph and Louisa
RelativesJohn S. Jacobs (brother)

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".[5]

Born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina, she was sexually harassed by her enslaver. When he threatened to sell her children if she did not submit to his desire, she hid in a tiny crawl space under the roof of her grandmother's house, so low she could not stand up in it. After staying there for seven years, she finally managed to escape to the free North, where she was reunited with her children Joseph and Louisa Matilda and her brother John S. Jacobs. She found work as a nanny and got into contact with abolitionist and feminist reformers. Even in New York City, her freedom was in danger until her employer was able to pay off her legal owner.

During and immediately after the American Civil War, she travelled to Union-occupied parts of the Confederate South together with her daughter, organizing help and founding two schools for fugitive and freed slaves.

  1. ^ Journal of the Civil War Era.
  2. ^ Yellin (ed.), Incidents
  3. ^ Yellin, Life 3
  4. ^ "Dating Harriet Jacobs: Why Birthdates Matter to Historians". Black Past. June 17, 2013. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  5. ^ Yellin, Life 126


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