Harriet Ann Jacobs – författare

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1813-1897) was born into slavery in North Carolina, but escaped to the north to flee her owner's sexual advances. This autobiography was published under a pseudonym in 1861 to protect her family. She became involved with the Anti-Slavery Society, speaking at meetings in support of abolition. The book was aimed at middle-class white women, and stresses the impact of slavery on women's chastity, as slaves were frequently sexually exploited. She is highly critical of the nominal Christianity of the culture of the southern States. Much of the narrative deals with her efforts to regain her children, who had remained her master's property. Jacobs' first-hand account was an early publication of its type, and many found the abuse she suffered shocking and unbelievable. Jacobs became a role model for freed slaves, in taking control of her life, and helping others to adapt through education.

This vintage book contains Harriet Ann Jacobs'' 1861 autobiography, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl". It chronicles Jacobs'' life as a female slave and documents how she attained freedom both for herself and for her children. Within this volume she explores the life of female slaves on plantations, the abuse and hardships that they had to endure, and their desperate efforts to protect their children. "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" represents an authentic insight into the lives of female slaves in pre-emancipation America and is highly recommended for those with an interest in American history. Read & Co. History are republishing this memoir now in a new edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the amazing narratives of Harriet Ann Jacobs.  Jacobs, born in North Carolina in 1813, hid in a crawlspace for many years and eventually escaped to New York City in 1842.

After hiding in her grandmother’s attic for seven years, Harriet Ann Jacobs was finally able to escape servitude—and her master’s sexual abuse—when she fled to the North. Once there, she became a very active abolitionist, and her correspondence with Harriet Beecher Stowe inspired her to write Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl about her years as a slave.She published the narrative in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, and the book was written as a novel with fictionalized characters to protect Jacobs from retribution by her former owners. (Dr. Flint, i.e., the real Dr. James Norcom, is Linda Brent’s master in the novel.) The story emphasized certain negative aspects of slavery—especially the struggles of female slaves under sexually abusive masters, cruel mistresses, and the sale of their children—in order to play on the sympathies of white middle-class women in the North.Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was published at the beginning of the American Civil War. It contributed to the Union’s and abolitionists’ war effort, but is today seen as an important first-hand account from an escaped slave woman and an important abolitionist. After the Civil War, Jacobs continued to support the African-American cause, particularly education, until her death in 1897.Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.