Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897)

Harriet Jacobs was convinced, by friends, to write an autobiography of her life as a slave. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl(1861) was the book and it is one of the first open discussions about the sexual harassment and abuse endured by a slave woman - a topic that even made abolitionists feel uncomfortable.

The story tells of how, eventually after many years as a slave, Harriet was able to escape the continual sexual harassment of her slave owner and become a free woman.

In her autobiography Harriet’s says her childhood was a happy one. Though we were slaves, I was fondly shielded that I never dreamed that I was a piece of merchandise.

But on the death of her benevolent mistress, when she was 12, everything changed. Her ownership transfered to her mistress’s niece who was only 3 years old. Harriet’s actual new master was the niece’s father - Dr James Norcom. He would cause her a great deal of pain.

When she was 15 Norcom began his relentless efforts to bend the slave girl’s will.
He would whisper ‘foul words’ in her ear.
His wife became suspicious so he built Harriet a cottage 4 miles from town.
She asked if she could marry a free black man, Norcom violently refused.

She had a plan. She became friendly with a caring white, unmarried lawyer. They had a child, She expected the infuriated Norcom to sell her and her child.- he didn’t.

She bore the lawyer a second child. She heard Norcom was preparing to get the children to work as plantation slaves. In June 1835, after 7 rears of mistreatment, she ’ escaped’ and stayed with neighbours, black and white.

The lawyer had bought her grandmother and uncle’s house. She found a tiny crawl space above the porch just big enough to hid in (9x7x3 feet). This tiny hiding place is where she stayed for the next 7 years- she could see her children through a peep hole. At night she would briefly exercise.

In 1842 she escaped to freedom. She sailed to Philadelphia and then to New York by train. She was reunited with her children Joseph and Louisa Matilda and eventually her brother, John J. Jacobs…

She fled to Massachusetts to again escape from Norcom.

She found work as a nanny for the Children of Nathaniel Parker Willis. Harriet eventually became legally free when Mrs Willis, arranged her purchase.

She made contact with abolitionists and feminist reformers. She was actively involved with the abolition movement before the launch of the Civil War. During the war she helped raise money for black refugees.

After the war she worked to improve the conditions of th e recently freed slaves. She went with her daughter to the Union occupied parts of the South to help organize and found 2 schools for fugitives and freed slaves.

She died in 7th March 1897, aged 84, a free woman.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is now considered an ‘American classic’

Sources
Africans in America
Amazon
National Archives
Penquin Classics