Harriet Ann Jacobs

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Harriet Ann Jacobs bigraphy, stories - American Civil War nurse, slave, writer and abolitionist

Harriet Ann Jacobs : biography

February 11, 1813 – March 7, 1897

Harriet Ann Jacobs (February 11, 1813 – March 7, 1897) was an African-American writer who escaped from slavery and became an abolitionist speaker and reformer. Jacobs’ single work, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, was one of the first autobiographical narratives about the struggle for freedom by female slaves and an account of the sexual harassment and abuse they endured.

Biography

Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in Edenton, North Carolina, in 1813Yellin p. 3. and had a brother John S. Jacobs. Her father Elijah Knox was an enslaved black house carpenter owned by Andrew Knox. Elijah was said to be the son of the enslaved woman Athena Knox and a white farmer, Henry Jacobs.Jean Fagan Yellin, ed. The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2008. Harriet’s mother was Delilah Horniblow, an enslaved black woman held by John Horniblow, a tavern owner. Harriet and John inherited the status of "slave" from their mother. Harriet lived with her mother until Delilah’s death around 1819, when Harriet was six.Sekora, John. Jacobs, Harriet. Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition. Literary Reference Center. Ebsco. 2003. Then she lived with her mother’s mistress Margaret Horniblow, who taught Harriet to read, write and sew.

In 1825, Margaret Horniblow died and willed the twelve-year-old Harriet to Horniblow’s five-year-old niece. The girl’s father, Dr. James Norcom, became Harriet’s de facto master. Three months before she died, Jacobs’ mistress had signed a will leaving her slaves to her mother, but Dr. James Norcom and a man named Henry Flury witnessed a later codicil to the will directing that Harriet be left to Norcom’s daughter, Mary Matilda. The codicil was not signed by Margaret Hornibow.

Norcom sexually harassed Harriet. He refused to allow her to marry, regardless of a man’s status. Hoping to escape his attentions, Jacobs took Samuel Sawyer, a free white lawyer, as a consensual lover. He later became a member of the US House of Representatives. With Sawyer, she had two children, Joseph and Louisa. As the children shared Harriet’s status and were born into slavery, Norcom was their master., PBS, accessed 21 April 2009. Harriet reported that Norcom threatened to sell her children if she refused his sexual advances. By 1835 her domestic situation had become unbearable, and Harriet deftly managed to escape. Jacobs hid in the home of a slaveowner in Edenton to keep an eye on her children. After a short stay, she took refuge in a swamp called Cabarrus Pocosin. She then hid in a crawl space above a shack in her grandmother Molly’s home.

Jacobs lived for seven years in her grandmother’s attic before escaping to the North by boat to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1842. Her children lived with Jacobs’ grandmother so, while in hiding, Jacobs had glimpses of them and could hear their voices. Before Jacobs escaped from North Carolina, Sawyer purchased their two children from Norcom and they moved in with Jacobs’ Grandmother but he did not free them.

After reaching the North in 1842, Jacobs was taken in by anti-slavery friends from the Philadelphia Vigilant Committee. They helped her get to New York in September 1845.Jean Fagan Yellin, ed. "September 1810 – November 1843: Slavery and Resistance", Harriet Jacobs Family Papers, Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2008. pp. 1–51. There she found work as a nursemaid in the home of Nathaniel Parker Willis and made a new life. She was also able to see her daughter, Louisa, who had been sent to New York at a young age to be a "waiting-maid".

In 1845, Jacobs’ employer Mary Stace Willis died. Jacobs continued to care for Mary’s daughter Imogen and assist Nathaniel Willis. In January she traveled to England with him and his daughter. In letters home, Jacobs claimed there was no prejudice against people of color in England. After returning from England, Jacobs left her employment with the Willises and moved to Boston to visit with her daughter, son and brother for ten months. Her brother, John S. Jacobs, who was part of the anti-slavery movement, in 1849 decided to open an anti-slavery reading room in Rochester, New York.Jean Fagan Yellin, ed. "September 1845 – April 1849: British Respite, Northern Activism", The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers, Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2008. 53–146.