The unflinching nineteenth-century autobiography that broke the silence on the psychosexual exploitation of Black women—with an introduction by Tiya Miles, author of All That She Carried and National Book Award finalist “[A] crowning achievement . . . [Jacobs] remodeled the forms of the black slave narrative and the white female sentimental novel to create a new literary form—a narrative at once black and female.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The New York Times In clear and unshrinking prose, Harriet Jacobs—writing under the pseudonym Linda Brent—relates the story of her girlhood and adolescence as a slave in North Carolina and her eventual escape: a bildungsroman set in the complex terrain of a chauvinist, white supremacist society. Resolutely addressing women readers, rather than men, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl seeks to make white women understand how the threat of sexual violence shapes the lives of enslaved Black women and children. Equal parts brave and searing, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a triumph of American literature. The Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance. AMERICAN INDIAN STORIES • THE AWAKENING • THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY • THE HEADS OF CERBERUS • LADY AUDLEY’S SECRET • LOVE, ANGER, MADNESS • PASSING • THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER • THERE IS CONFUSION • THE TRANSFORMATION OF PHILIP JETTAN • VILLETTE
"A Woman Of North Carolina."Rise up, ye women that are at ease! Hear my voice, ye careless daughters! Give ear unto my speech."Isaiah xxxii. 9.This volume of Harriet Jacobs' "Slave Girl" is number 3 in the Black History Series.
Reader be assured this narrative is no fiction.
Reader be assured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, strictly true. I have not exaggerated the...
Harriet Ann Jacobs R. J. Ellis. me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be? 16. And Laban had two daughters, the name of the eldest was Leah, and the name of the youngest was rachel . . . 18. And Jacob loved rachel; and said, ...
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Reprint of the original, first published in 1861.
Only by experience can any one realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that pit of abominations. May the blessing of God rest on this imperfect effort in behalf of my persecuted people! Linda Brent (AKA Harriet Jacobs)
In this volume, Jennifer Fleischner examines the first- and best-known female account of life under, and escape from, slavery — Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography.
Somebody has called it "the atmosphere of hell"; and I believe it is so. First published in 1861 under a pseudonym, this is the autobiography of Harriet Jacobs, a mother, fugitive and slave.
Published in 1861, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" was one of the first personal narratives by a slave and one of the few written by a woman.