New Releases by Harriet A. Jacobs

\"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself\" by Harriet A. Jacobs is an autobiographical account written in the mid-19th century. The book explores the harrowing experiences of a young enslaved girl named Linda Brent, who navigates the complexities of slavery, gender, and personal autonomy within a brutal system designed to dehumanize her. The opening of the narrative introduces readers to Linda''s childhood, where she enjoys a degree of privilege as a favored slave girl, shielded from the realities of her status until her mother''s death reveals to her the true nature of her existence. With her mother''s passing, the narrative shifts to her new home with Dr. Flint, a figure who embodies the cruelty and sexual predation of slavery. Linda''s innocence is shattered as she faces the relentless advances of her master, the jealousy of his wife, and the threat of being sold or abused at any moment. The early pages set the tone for a story that deeply examines the institutionalized injustices faced by enslaved women, highlighting the struggle for personal dignity and freedom amidst a life fraught with suffering and exploitation.

The Classic book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs. A true autobiography of a slave who later won her liberty. Initially portions of her stories where published in the New-York Tribune, but many of her narratives which involved rape were too much for the general public. It is an extremely powerful description of an important part of American history.

Published in 1861, this was one of the first personal narratives by a slave and one of the few written by a woman.

Harriet Jacobs was born in 1813, in Edenton, North Carolina. She was born into slavery to her father, Elijah Jacobs and her mother, Delilah Horniblow. Harriet''s mother died when she six years old and she lived with her mother''s mistress, Margaret Horniblow. Margaret taught Harriet to read, write and sew. When Harriet was 11, Margaret died, and Dr. James Norcom became her new master. Although Jacobs was still a child, Norcom sexually harassed her. When she asked permission to marry a free black slave, Norcom refused to allow it. To get away from Norcom''s sexual advances, she began a consensual sexual relationship with an unmarried, white lawyer named Samuel Sawyer. He was kind and caring to Jacobs. Harriet gave birth to two children with Sawyer, Joseph and Louisa. Norcom continued to pursue her and when Jacobs learned that he was going to force her children to work as plantation slaves, she ran away in 1835. For 7 years, she hid in her grandmother''s attic, and during that time, wrote letters to Norcom to confuse him on her whereabouts. Also, during that time, Sawyer was elected as a member of the United States House of Representatives and had also purchased their children. While Jacobs hid in her grandmother''s attic, her children also lived with her grandmother, and she was able to watch and listen to her children from the attic. In 1842, Jacobs made her escape north. With the help of anti-slavery friends, she was able to make it to New York and find work as a housemaid in 1845 for Mary Stace Willis. She was able to be reunited with her daughter, Louisa, who had also been sent north by Sawyer to work as a house servant. Soon after, she was reunited with her brother, John, who was a fugitive slave. She continued to work for the Willis family after her mistress died. She accompanied Mr. Willis and his daughter to England, where she wrote that there was no prejudice against people of color. A short while later, after their return to the United States, Jacobs left her employment with the family and moved to Boston to be closer to her son, daughter and brother. Her brother was very active in the anti-slavery movement. After her brother opened an anti-slavery reading room, Jacobs became involved with it and soon joined the American Anti-Slavery Society. She helped to support the anti-slavery reading room by giving speeches and collecting donations to help support the movement. In 1850, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, and the Jacobs family feared for the freedom and safety. Harriet Jacob;s brother, John, fled to California, where he found work in the gold mines of the Gold Rush, and her son, Joseph Jacobs joined his uncle there a few years later. Meanwhile, in an act of immeasurable kindness, and without the knowledge of Harriet Jacobs, the second wife of Mr, Willis, Cornelia Grinnell Willis paid $300 to purchase Harriet Jacobs and then gave Jacobs her freedom. Jacobs wrote Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl after a friend of hers, Amy Post, convinced her to do so. It was published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent. She also changed names in her book, so people wouldn''t be recognized. Mr Norcom is known as Mr Flint. Jacobs was the first woman in the United States to write a fugitive slave autobiography. After Jacobs published her book, she devoted her time to helping former slaves who were refugees of the Civil War. She supported her daughter as she worked to educate African Americans. In 1970, Harriet Jacobs ran a boarding house with Louisa in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In her later years, she lived with her daughter Louisa in Washington D.C., where she died March 7, 1887.

Harriet Jacobs''s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is one of the most compelling accounts of slavery and one of the most unique of the one hundred or so slave narratives -- mostly written by men -- published before the Civil War.The child and grandchild of slaves -- and therefore forbidden by law to read and write -- Harriet Jacobs was defiant in her efforts to gain freedom and to document her experience in bondage. She suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her master at the age of eleven. In 1842, she fled North and joined a circle of abolitionists that worked for Frederick Douglass''s newspaper. In 1863, she and her daughter moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where they organized medical care for Civil War victims and established the Jacobs Free School.

To commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the end of the Civil War, Diversion Books is publishing seminal works of the era: stories told by the men and women who led, who fought, and who lived in an America that had come apart at the seams. Among the first of slave narratives to be published, Harriet A. Jacobs led an extraordinary life, punctuated by the limitless hardship of slavery, made indelible by the sheer power of her words. In this narrative she writes candidly of the treatment she witness and endured as a slave, as well as her dramatic escape to freedom.

Harriet Ann Jacobs wurde 1813 in North Carolina geboren und veröffentlichte ihre Autobiographie im Jahr 1861 unter dem Pseudonym Linda Brent.Zum Inhalt: Linda verbringt sechs glückliche Jahre im Schoß ihrer Familie und weil sie so behütet aufwächst, ahnt sie nicht, dass sie in die Sklaverei geboren wurde. Erst als ihre Mutter stirbt und sie in die Obhut ihrer Herrin kommt, realisiert das junge Mädchen, dass es sich bei ihr um eine menschliche Ware handelt. Zunächst hat sie noch Glück, denn ihre Herrin kümmert sich recht liebevoll um sie. So bringt die Herrin dem jungen Mädchen nähen, lesen und schreiben bei - diese Fähigkeiten sollen ihr in ihrem weiteren Leben noch große Dienste erweisen. Ferner kann sich Linda auf die Hilfe ihrer verbliebenen Familie verlassen. Nur wenige Jahre später verstirbt die gutherzige Herrin, woraufhin Linda an ein dreijähriges Mädchen weitervererbt wird, die in ihrer Nachbarschaft lebt. Da ihre neue Herrin noch nicht mündig ist, untersteht sie jedoch den Eltern des Kindes. Das Glück hat das Sklavenmädchen nun endgültig verlassen, denn sie ist in die Fänge eines hartherzigen Mannes und seiner Ehefrau geraten, welche fortan ihr Leben zur Hölle machen sollen. Der neue Herr, Dr. Flint, belästigt und schikaniert die junge Linda, um sie so zu seiner persönlichen Konkubine heranzuziehen, was wiederum den Zorn und die Eifersucht der Herrin wecken. Aber das junge Mädchen trotzt der Macht der Sklavenhalter und sie fasst den Plan, die Fesseln der Sklaverei zu sprengen. Erleben Sie, wie Linda sich mit Hilfe ihrer Freunde von einem jungen und hilflosen Mädchen zu einer reifen und selbstbestimmten Frau weiterentwickelt. Erlebnisse aus dem Leben eines Sklavenmädchens gewährt Ihnen einzigartige Einblicke in das abscheuliche System der Sklaverei und stellt Ihr Wissen über die sogenannte besondere Institution\" auf die Probe. Wiedergeburt eines Klassikers: In der Autobiographie wird mehrfach darauf hingewiesen, dass die Erzählung der Wahrheit entspricht. Man kann es nicht oft genug betonen, denn die Geschichte von Harriet Ann Jacobs ist so außergewöhnlich, dass man in Gefahr gerät, sie als Produkt der Fantasie oder abolitionistischer Propaganda abzustempeln. Zu den außergewöhnlichen Ereignissen gehört - neben scheinbar wilden Zufällen - der Umstand, dass Harriet Ann Jacobs sich sieben Jahre lang unter furchtbarsten Bedingungen verstecken musste. Nachdem der Wahrheitsgehalt des Buchs in Frage gestellt wurde und die Urheberschaft der Herausgeberin Lydia Maria Child zugeschrieben wurde, geriet dieses beispiellose Zeugnis aus der amerikanischen Sklavenära für lange Zeit in Vergessenheit. Erst in den 80er Jahren des vergangenen Jahrhunderts konnte bewiesen werden, dass die Geschichte tatsächlich der Wahrheit entspricht und darüber hinaus aus Harriet Ann Jacobs Feder stammt. Seitdem die Vorwürfe widerlegt wurden, hat das Buch ein Comeback gefeiert. Heute hat Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl seinen verdienten Platz im Kanon der großen US-amerikanischen Sklavenerzählungen eingenommen, wozu übrigens auch die kürzlich verfilmte Erzählung von Solomon Northup, 12 Years a Slave, gehört. In den Vereinigten Staaten steht Erlebnisse aus dem Leben eines Sklavenmädchens unlängst auf den Leselisten diverser High Schools und wird ausgiebig an den Universitäten behandelt.

Autoibiographies of three pre-Civil War African-American slaves.\"Northerners know nothing at all about Slavery. They think it is perpetual bondage only. They have no conception of the depth of degradation involved in that word, slavery; if they had, they would never cease their efforts until so horrible a system was overthrown.\"

Books for All Kinds of Readers Read HowYouWant offers the widest selection of on-demand, accessible format editions on the market today. Our 7 different sizes of EasyRead are optimized by increasing the font size and spacing between the words and the letters. We partner with leading publishers around the globe. Our goal is to have accessible editions simultaneously released with publishers'' new books so that all readers can have access to the books they want to read. To find more books in your format visit www.readhowyouwant.com

Books for All Kinds of Readers Read HowYouWant offers the widest selection of on-demand, accessible format editions on the market today. Our 7 different sizes of EasyRead are optimized by increasing the font size and spacing between the words and the letters. We partner with leading publishers around the globe. Our goal is to have accessible editions simultaneously released with publishers'' new books so that all readers can have access to the books they want to read. To find more books in your format visit www.readhowyouwant.com

Books for All Kinds of Readers Read HowYouWant offers the widest selection of on-demand, accessible format editions on the market today. Our 7 different sizes of EasyRead are optimized by increasing the font size and spacing between the words and the letters. We partner with leading publishers around the globe. Our goal is to have accessible editions simultaneously released with publishers'' new books so that all readers can have access to the books they want to read. To find more books in your format visit www.readhowyouwant.com

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic includes a glossary and reader''s notes to help the modern reader appreciate Jacobs'' perspectives and language.DRIVEN BY THE HORRORS of slavery and fear of a predatory master, Harriet Jacobs, a young black woman, makes the fateful, life-altering decision to escape. Long thought to be the work of a white writer, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the captivating and terrifying story of Jacobs'' daily life on a plantation in North Carolina, her seven years of hiding, and her ultimate triumph.Jacobs wrote her autobiography in 1861, under a pseudonym to protect the lives of the friends and family she left behind, and the work had been essentially lost until the mid-twentieth century. Now recognized as a classic, unflinching portrait of slave life, Incidents exposes slavery on a level comparable only to that of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.