Best Selling Books by Harriet Ann Jacobs

Reproduction of the original: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs

Harriet Ann Jacobs (February 11, 1813 - March 7, 1897) was an American writer, who escaped from the horrors of slavery and became an abolitionist speaker and reformer. Jacobs'' single work, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, was one of the first autobiographical narratives about the struggle for freedom by female slaves and an account of the sexual harassment and abuse they endured.

Harriet Ann Jacobs (February 11, 1813 - March 7, 1897) was an American writer, who escaped from the horrors of slavery and became an abolitionist speaker and reformer. Jacobs'' single work, ''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'', published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, was one of the first autobiographical narratives about the struggle for freedom by female slaves and an account of the sexual harassment and abuse they endured. This important primary source includes a new introduction by Emmy award winning writer and historian Bob Carruthers.

At her request, I have revised her manuscript; but, such changes as I have made have been mainly for purposes Of condensation and orderly arrangement. I have not added any thing to the incidents, or changed the import of her very pertinent remarks. With trifling exceptions, both the ideas and the language are her own. I pruned excrescences a little, but otherwise I had no reason for changing her lively and dramatic way of telling her own story. The names of both persons and places are known to me; but for good reasons I suppress them.

"Harriet Jacobs''s 1861 autobiography was the first written narrative by a female slave in America. Using the pseudonym Linda, Jacobs recounts the horrors of her life as a slave and a mother. She documents the physical and sexual abuse she went through prior to her escape from slavery and gaining freedom for herself and two children."--Provided by publisher

This 1861 account of life as a slave made an impassioned plea for the cause of abolition in America.

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.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by herself is an autobiography by Harriet Ann Jacobs, a young mother and fugitive slave, published in 1861 by L. Maria Child, who edited the book for its author. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent. The book documents Jacobs''s life as a slave and how she gained freedom for herself and for her children. Jacobs contributed to the genre of slave narrative by using the techniques of sentimental novels "to address race and gender issues." She explores the struggles and sexual abuse that female slaves faced on plantations as well as their efforts to practice motherhood and protect their children when their children might be sold away.

12 Tears of a Slave: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a slave narrative that was published in 1861 by Harriet Ann Jacobs, using the pen name ""Linda Brent."" This book is an in-depth chronological account of Jacobs''s life as a slave, and the decisions and choices she made to gain freedom for herself and her children. It addresses the struggles and sexual abuse that young women slaves faced on the plantations, and how these struggles were harsher than what men suffered as slaves. This book is considered sentimental and written to provoke an emotional response and sympathy from the reader toward slavery in general and slave women in particular for their struggles with rape, the pressure to have sex at an early age, the selling of their children, and the treatment of female slaves by their mistresses. Published by W2G Publishing Copyright 2014 Write2Grow LLC www.Write2Grow.org/Tears ISBN 978-1-304-85959-4 247 Printed Pages

Harriet Jacob''s life exemplifies the history of her people throughout the nineteenth century. The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers, composed of writings by Jacobs, her brother John S. Jacobs, and her daughter Louisa Matilda Jacobs, writings to them, and private and public writings about them, presents a unique angle of vision. Fueled by the conflict between the impluse of liberty inspiring American life and the institution of chattel slavery blighting that life, the papers collected here off new perspectives on nineteenth-century struggles against slavery, racism, and sexism. The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers is designed as a lasting contribution to the ongoing study of the ways in which these national struggles and the social conditions that gave rise to them have shaped our culture and continue to shape our lives.

An authentic narrative of slave life and one of the few written by a woman.

African American history is the part of American history that looks at the past of African Americans or Black Americans. Of the 10.7 million Africans who were brought to the Americas until the 1860s, 450 thousand were shipped to what is now the United States. Most African Americans are descended from Africans who were brought directly from Africa to America and became slaves. The future slaves were originally captured in African wars or raids and transported in the Atlantic slave trade. Our collection includes the following works: Narrative Of The Life by Frederick Douglass. The impassioned abolitionist and eloquent orator provides graphic descriptions of his childhood and horrifying experiences as a slave as well as a harrowing record of his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom. Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. Powerful by portrayal of the brutality of slave life through the inspiring tale of one woman''s dauntless spirit and faith. Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington. Washington rose to become the most influential spokesman for African Americans of his day. He describes events in a remarkable life that began in slavery and culminated in worldwide recognition. The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois. W. E. B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor. Contents: 1. Frederick Douglass: Narrative Of The Life 2. Harriet Ann Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl 3. Booker Taliaferro Washington: Up From Slavery 4. W. E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Writing as Linda Brent, Harriet Jacobs''s unflinching, powerful narrative of her life as a slave in North Carolina, and of her eventual escape and emancipation, is a damning account of the evils and brutality of slavery. This Enriched Classic Edition includes: A concise introduction that gives the reader important background information A chronology of the author''s life and work A timeline of significant events that provides the book''s historical context An outline of key themes and plot points to guide the reader''s own interpretations Detailed explanatory notes Critical analysis and modern perspectives on the work Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader''s experience Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world''s finest books to their full potential.

African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Before the high point of enslaved people narratives, African-American literature was dominated by autobiographical spiritual narratives. The genre known as slave narratives in the 19th century were accounts by people who had generally escaped from slavery, about their journeys to freedom and ways they claimed their lives. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a great period of flowering in literature and the arts, influenced both by writers who came North in the Great Migration and those who were immigrants from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. Novels and short stories William Wells Brown CLOTEL; OR, THE PRESIDENT''S DAUGHTER Frederick Douglass THE HEROIC SLAVE Harriet E. Wilson OUR NIG; OR, SKETCHES FROM THE LIFE OF A FREE BLACK Nella Larsen QUICKSAND PASSING THE WRONG MAN FREEDOM SANTUARY Alice Dunbar-Nelson A CARNIVAL JANGLE VIOLETS THE WOMAN TEN MINUTES MUSING TITIEE Charles W. Chesnutt THE GOOPHERED GRAPEVINE PO'' SANDY SIS'' BECKY''S PICKANINNY THE DOLL THE WIFE OF HIS YOUTH DAVE''S NECKLISS THE PASSING OF GRANDISON A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE THE SHERIFF''S CHILDREN BAXTER''S PROCRUSTES Paul Laurence Dunbar THE SCAPEGOAT Jean Toomer BECKY Poetry Phillis Wheatley POEMS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL Frances E. W. Harper POEMS Langston Hughes THE WEARY BLUES Countee Cullen COLOR COPPER SUN THE BALLAD OF THE BROWN GIRL Non-fiction Olaudah Equiano THE INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO, OR GUSTAVUS VASSA, THE AFRICAN Mary Prince THE HISTORY OF MARY PRINCE, A WEST INDIAN SLAVE Charles Ball A NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF CHARLES BALL Frederick Douglass NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE Josiah Henson THE LIFE OF JOSIAH HENSON Solomon Northup TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE Harriet Ann Jacobs INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL Elizabeth Keckley BEHIND THE SCENES Louis Hughes THIRTY YEARS A SLAVE Booker T. Washington UP FROM SLAVERY William Still THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Henry Box Brown James Hambleton Christian Theophilus Collins Seth Concklin William And Ellen Craft Abram Galloway And Richard Eden Charles Gilbert Samuel Green Jamie Griffin Harry Grimes James Hamlet And Others John Henry Hill Ann Maria Jackson And Her Seven Children Jane Johnson Matilda Mahoney Mary Frances Melvin Aunt Hannah Moore Alfred S. Thornton Essays W. E. B. Du Bois THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK Charles W. Chesnutt THE DISFRANCHISEMENT OF THE NEGRO Paul Laurence Dunbar REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN NEGROES

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a book that was published in 1861 by Harriet Jacobs, using the pen name "Linda Brent." It is considered a work of feminist literature. While on one level it chronicles the experiences of Harriet Jacobs as a slave, and the various humiliations she had to endure in that unhappy state, it also deals with the particular tortures visited on women at her station. Often in the book, she will point to a particular punishment that a male slave will endure at the hands of slave holders, and comment that, although she finds the punishment brutal in the extreme, it cannot compare to the abuse that a young woman must face while still on the cusp of girlhood

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. The book documents Jacobs''s life as a slave and how she gained freedom for herself and for her children. Jacobs contributed to the genre of slave narrative by using the techniques of sentimental novels "to address race and gender issues. She explores the struggles and sexual abuse that female slaves faced as well as their efforts to practice motherhood and protect their children when their children might be sold away.In the book, Jacobs addresses white Northern women who fail to comprehend the evils of slavery. She makes direct appeals to their humanity to expand their knowledge and influence their thoughts about slavery as an institution.Chapters 1 and 2 describe the narrator''s childhood and the story of her grandmother until she got her freedom. The narrator''s story is then continued in chapters 4 to 7, which tell of the longing for freedom she shares with her uncle Benjamin and her brother William, Benjamin''s escape, the sexual harassment by Dr. Flint, the jealousy of his wife, and the lover who she is forbidden to marry. Chapters 10 and 11 tell of her affair with Mr. Sands and the birth of her first child. Chapters 14 to 21 tell of the birth of her second child, her removal from the town to Flint''s plantation, her flight and her concealment in her grandmother''s garret. The nearly seven years she had to spend in that narrow place are described in chapters 22 to 28, the last chapters of which concentrate on the fate of family members during that time: the escape of her brother William (chapter 26), the plans made for the children (27), and the cruel treatment and death of her aunt Nancy (28). Her dramatic escape to Philadelphia is the subject of chapters 29 and 30. Chapters 31 to 36 describe her short stay in Philadelphia, her reunion with the children, her new work as nanny for the Bruce family, and her flight to Boston when she is threatened with recapture by Flint. Chapter 35 focusses on her experiences with northern racism. Her journey to England with Mr. Bruce and his baby Mary is the subject of chapter 37. Finally, chapters 38 to 41 deal with renewed threats of recapture, which are made much more serious by the Fugitive Slave Law, the "confession" of her affair with Mr. Sands to her daughter, her stay with Isaac and Amy Post in Rochester, the final attempt of her legal owner to capture her, the obtaining of her legal freedom, and the death of her grandmother.The other chapters are dedicated to special subjects: Chapter 3 describes the hiring out and selling of slaves on New Year''s Day, chapter 8 is called What Slaves Are Taught to Think of the North, chapter 9 gives various example of cruel treatment of slaves, chapter 12 describes the narrator''s experience of the anti-black violence in the wake of Nat Turner''s Rebellion, and chapter 13 is called The Church And Slavery.