Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself: With Related Documents (Bedford Series in History & Culture (Paperback)) - Softcover

Jacobs, Harriet

4.15

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9780312442668: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself: With Related Documents (Bedford Series in History & Culture (Paperback))

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312442661 ISBN 13: 9780312442668

Publisher: Bedford Books, 2009

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Examining the first- and best-known female account of life under, and escape from, slavery, Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl, Written by Herself recounts Harriet Jacobs' story and shows how she used the written word to liberate herself and promote the end of slavery by inspiring sympathy.

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Review:

[Of] female slave narratives, Harriet Jacobs's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself" is the crowning achievement. Manifesting a command of rhetorical and narrative strategies rivaled only by that of Frederick Douglass, Jacobs's autobiography is one of the major works of Afro-American literature...Jacobs's narrative is a bold and gripping fusion of two major literary forms: she borrowed from the popular sentimental novel on one hand, and the slave narrative genre on the other. Her tale gains its importance from the fact that she charts, in great and painful detail, the sexual exploitation that daily haunted her life--and the life of every other black female slave...Ms. Yellin's superbly researched edition ensures that Harriet Jacobs will never be lost again.--Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "New York Times Book Review "

From the Back Cover:

These two slave narratives expand our knowledge of the differing ways males and females coped with enslavement and later ordeals in flight. This popularly–priced anthology contains the often taught Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and the recently discovered A True Tale of Slavery by John S. Jacobs, her younger brother, now reprinted for the first time.

After Harriet s owner, a physician, repeatedly abused her, she escaped his sexual advances for a time by entering into a relationship with a local attorney. Her owner continued to harass her, and she sought refuge in a crawlspace where she lived in hiding. After her escape to the North, she published her narrative.

John S. Jacobs walked away as he put it, from his owner, a congressman. He sailed on a whaling ship and educated himself. He then became a paid agent of the Anti–Slavery Society, made a lecturing trip with Frederick Douglass, and finally settled in London, where he remained until it was safe for a fugitive to return to the North. He wrote his story for a London Sunday school journal where it was published in 1861.

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