Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Slave Narratives Abolitionism Feminism/Womanism

Harriet Jacobs (c ) 1813 born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina Parents: Delilah and Elijah, a house carpenter Her brother John born 1815 Mother dies about At the age of six, Harriet is taken into the home of her slave mistress. She learns to sew and read. As an adolescent, sent to the home of Dr. James Norcom, whom she characterizes as the licentious “Dr. Flint,” who subjected her to “unrelenting sexual harassment.”

To prevent Mr. Flint from becoming her sexual partner at 15, Jacobs started a relationship with a young white neighbor at 16. Son Joseph born around Daughter Matilda ( ) Fears that her children will be made plantation slaves 1835 Jacobs runs away and hides in an attic crawl space for seven years

1842 recounts her escape to New York and her reunion with her children moves to Rochester, New York with her brother who works with Frederick Douglass In Rochester, Jacobs meets Amy Post, a feminist Quaker, who urged her to write he autobiography returns to New York City after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act and was the target of kidnappers.

1853, Jacobs’ employer Cornelia Grinnel Willis purchased her freedom from the Norcom family Written from 1853 to 1851 Could not find a publisher until 1861 when white abolitionist L. Maria Child acted as her agent and editor. Published pseudonymously with only Child’s name on the title page as editor.

Her name would not be connected with the book until 1987 because her authorship and story were disputed Published Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl The most comprehensive autobiography written by an African American woman Significant because it broke taboos to present her sexual history, which is more implied than explicit. Significant because of its emphasis on forms of family relationships and its focus on a woman’s perspective

During the Civil War worked with Elizabeth Keckley and Sojourner Truth to help black refugees leaving the South to 1865, with her daughter, she established the Jacobs Free School in Alexandria, Virginia mother and daughter worked to help the black community in Savannah, Georgia named the to the executive committee of the feminist Women’s Loyal National League

1866 Louisa lectured for the radical American Equal Rights Association Jacobs and daughter traveled to England, where Incidents was published in 1862, to raise money for Savannah’s black community 1877 moved to Washington, D.C.

1896 daughter attended the organizing meetings for the National Association of Colored Women in Washington, D.C. Died in Washington D.C. in 1897