Harriet Jacobs

Experience timeless classics like never before in this Grand Type Collector's Edition With clear, easy-to-read formatting, this edition is designed for readers who prefer or require larger text without sacrificing the excitement of the original. Large Print Features: 18-point font: Generously sized text for maximum readability and comfort. Sans-serif font: Clean, modern typeface designed to reduce visual strain. Italics are bolded: Important emphasis is maintained without thin, hard-to-see lettering. Easy-to-read line lengths: Shorter rows of text (under 45 characters per line) make reading smoother and less tiring. Trapped in the cruel grip of slavery, a young woman fights not only for her freedom but also for her dignity and the safety of those she loves. With unflinching honesty, she reveals the harrowing realities of enslavement-relentless persecution, constant fear, and unimaginable sacrifices. Yet amid the suffering, her story is one of courage and resilience, filled with ingenious acts of defiance and a determination to endure. Her deeply personal account shines a piercing light on injustice, leaving readers heartbroken, outraged, and inspired. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl stands as a groundbreaking firsthand narrative, shedding light on the unique struggles faced by enslaved women in America. Harriet Jacobs vividly portrays the intersection of slavery, gender, and motherhood, challenging the societal norms of her time. Her testimony not only exposed the brutal realities of bondage but also galvanized the abolitionist movement. As one of the first autobiographies by an African American woman, it remains an essential voice in history.

Written by Harriet Ann Jacobs, using the pen name "Linda Brent," Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl 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.

Collector's Edition Laminated Hardback with Jacket Trapped in the cruel grip of slavery, a young woman fights not just for her freedom but for her dignity and the safety of those she loves. With unflinching honesty, she exposes the harrowing realities of life as an enslaved woman, from relentless persecution to unimaginable sacrifices. Her tale is one of defiance and survival, marked by ingenious acts of courage and unwavering determination. This deeply personal account shines a piercing light on the injustices of her time, leaving readers both heartbroken and inspired. A groundbreaking firsthand account, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl sheds light on the unique struggles faced by enslaved women in America. Harriet Jacobs's vivid narrative unveils the intersection of slavery, gender, and motherhood, challenging 19th-century societal norms. Her story not only exposed the brutal realities of bondage but also fueled the abolitionist movement by humanizing its victims. As one of the first autobiographical works by an African American woman, it remains a vital piece of history, illuminating voices too often silenced.

In 1861, Harriet Jacobs became the first formerly enslaved African American woman to publish a book-length account of her life. In crafting her coming-of-age story, she insisted upon biographical accuracy and bold creativity telling the truth while giving herself and others fictionalized names. She also adapted conventions from other popular genres, the sentimental novel and the slave narrative. Then, despite facing obstacles not encountered by Black men and white women, she orchestrated the book's publication and became a traveling bookseller in an effort to inspire passive Americans to support the abolition of slavery. Engaging with the latest research on Jacobs's life and work, this edition helps readers to understand the enormity of Jacobs's achievement in writing, publishing, and distributing her life story. However, it also shows how this monumental accomplishment was only the beginning of her contributions, given her advocacy work over the nearly forty years that she lived after its publication. As a survivor of sexual abuse who became an advocate, Jacobs laid a foundation for activist movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. This edition also features six appendices, placing resources at readers' fingertips that further illuminate the issues raised by Jacobs's remarkable life and legacy.

When Harriet is six years old, her mother passes away and from conversations she learns for the first time that she is a slave, a commodity who was only allowed to live in her parents' home for safekeeping. It is without a doubt a very harrowing book. Among other things, the author addresses the sexual abuse by some slave owners to whom the women were defenseless, which shocked the reading public at the time. She also denounces the 1850 U. S. Fugitive Slave Law, which forced northern states to return runaway slaves to their owners in the southern states. Gr ls Classics - English Edition

When Harriet is six years old, her mother passes away and from conversations she learns for the first time that she is a slave, a commodity who was only allowed to live in her parents' home for safekeeping. It is without a doubt a very harrowing book. Among other things, the author addresses the sexual abuse by some slave owners to whom the women were defenseless, which shocked the reading public at the time. She also denounces the 1850 U. S. Fugitive Slave Law, which forced northern states to return runaway slaves to their owners in the southern states. Gr ls Classics - English Edition

This special edition of the celebrated autobiographies of Moses Roper and Harriet Jacobs bring together the lives of two incredible individuals that made a difference in American history simply because they refused to give up despite how impossible their dreams seemed to be. Moses Roper and Harriet Jacobs were born in the waning days of slavery in the United States and though their experiences read like a script for a movie, their stories are no different than the thousands that were never acknowledged publicly during the almost three centuries that slavery blighted the history of America. Published in one volume for the first time and edited with additional biographical material not published previously.

“This may be the most important story ever written by a slave woman, capturing as it does the gross indignities as well as the subtler social arrangements of the time.”-Kirkus 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”-Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl, the autobiography of Harriet Jacobs, was initially written with the intention of illuminating white abolitionists to the appalling treatment of female slaves in the pre-Civil War South of the United States. The book was later rediscovered in the 1960’s, and it was not until the 1980s that it was proved to be an extraordinary work of autobiographical memoir as opposed to fiction. In this astonishing book, Harriet Jacobs uses the pseudonym of Linda Brent to recount her story as a slave, a mother, and her eventual escape to the north. Born into a relatively calm life as a young child to slaves, she is taken into the care of a kind mistress when her mother dies. Linda is taught to read and write, and is generally treated with respect. When the mistress passes away Linda is handed over to Dr. Flint. He is a negligent and cruel new master who subsequently pressures Linda for sexual favors, yet she resists his demands for years. In an attempt to circumvent the situation, Linda enters into a relationship with Mr. Sands, a white neighbor who ends up fathering her two children. Expecting that she and her children will be sold to Mr. Sands, Dr. Flint instead decides to subject them to further degradation. Linda escapes and goes into hiding in a small attic, and her children are eventually sold to Mr. Sand. For over seven years, Linda remains in hiding, until she ultimately escapes North to be reunited with her children. Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl is a devastating yet empowering document that uniquely focuses on the psychological and spiritual effects that bondage had on women slaves and their families. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is both modern and readable.

A landmark anthology of full-length works by Black American women writers of the 19th century including Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Harriet Jacobs, and Mary Weston Fordham-edited and with an introduction by C. S. R. Calloway. Shadows Uplifted collects and celebrates the vibrant and diverse work of these often unsung Black female writers, meticulously preserving their words while making them newly accessible to modern readers of all genders and backgrounds. Collected here for the first time in a single volume are three personal narratives: Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, Harriet E. Wilson's 1859 critical look at Black life in the northern states and long considered to be the first novel published by a Black American woman. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by herself, Harriet Jacobs's 1861 stark account of the journey she took to free herself and her children from enslaved life. Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House, Elizabeth Keckley's 1868 autobiography detailing her life as a dressmaker for First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln." Let us continue to uplift such shadows in our history, allowing them their corporeal bodies, flesh, blood, and melanated skin. Let us continue to uplift Black women: supporting and honoring their stories, their art, and their existence." - C. S. R. Calloway

The most famous autobiography written by a nineteenth-century African American woman, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a triumph of American literature and the unflinching narrative that broke the silence on the psychosexual exploitation of African-American women "I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away." In clear and unshrinking prose, Harriet Jacobs--writing under the pseudonym of "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 sought to make white women understand the ways that the threat of sexual violence shaped the lives of enslaved black women and children.