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Harriet Jacobs

Harriet Jacobs (l. c. 1813-1897) was a former slave, abolitionist, and author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), her autobiography, describing her life as a slave in North Carolina, her flight to freedom in the North, and her experiences there. Her book is among the most important primary documents on slavery in 19th-century America.

As Jacobs felt ashamed of some of the experiences she endured as a slave, she chose to publish the work under a pen name, Linda Brent, and the work was edited by the famous writer and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child (l. 1802-1880). It was well-received upon publication, and, among abolitionist circles anyway, Jacobs was accorded great respect as its author.

Jacobs had arranged the publication of the work herself, and it fell out of print after 1862. It was only rediscovered in the 1960s, with the advent of the Civil Rights Movement and Women's Movement in the USA. Although initially recognized as an autobiography, and Jacobs as its author, in 1861, it was understood in the 1960s as an anti-slavery novel by Child until this view was corrected by the American historian Jean Fagan Yellin (l. 1930-2023).

Today, the work is considered on par with the greatest slave narratives, such as Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) by former slave and leading abolitionist Frederick Douglass (l. c. 1818-1895) and Ellen and William Craft's Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom (1860).

Unlike many others, including those of Mary Prince (l. c. 1788 to c. 1833), Harriet Tubman (l. c. 1822-1913) and Sojourner Truth (l. c. 1797-1883) – which are as-told-to works – Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was written by Jacobs herself and so was not subject to the criticism leveled against the others as exaggerations by abolitionists of a slave's condition.

Early Life

Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in Edenton, North Carolina, c. 1813, the daughter of Delilah (a slave of one Margaret Horniblow) and Daniel Jacobs (slave to one Andrew Knox). Her parents tried their best to shield her from the reality of slavery, as Jacobs notes:

I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away…I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise, trusted to for safe keeping, and liable to be demanded of them at any moment.

(8)

Jacobs had a younger brother, John, and was especially attached to her grandmother, a free Black woman, Molly Horniblow. As a young girl, she was taught to read, write, and sew by her mistress, Margaret. Jacobs' mother died when she was six years old, and Margaret treated her as a daughter. When Margaret died in 1825, she left young Harriet to her niece, Mary Matilda Norcom, who was only three years old, and so Mary's father, Dr. James Norcom, became Harriet's master. It was not until she came to the Norcom residence that she understood she was a slave and had no control over her own life.

⇒ Harriet Jacobs

#History #HarrietJacobs #Abolitionism #Slavery #WHE

Fear of Insurrection

Fear of Insurrection comes from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) by Harriet Jacobs (l. 1813-1897) describing the reaction of the White community of Edenton, North Carolina, to news of Nat Turner's Rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, in August of 1831. The events described were repeated in other slave-holding states at the same time.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is Jacobs' autobiography, written by herself, detailing her life as a slave in Edenton, North Carolina, her escape to the north, and her work as an abolitionist. In this chapter, referring to events in the fall of 1831 while she was still a slave, Jacobs describes how the slave-holding community and poor Whites, fearing the Blacks might be planning an insurrection like Turner's, attacked them, searching their houses for evidence of revolt, and manufacturing that evidence when none was found.

Although Nat Turner's Rebellion is well-documented, and reports of events like the one below are attested, there are few that relate the details of retaliation against slaves and free Blacks following Turner's revolt, and none as detailed as Jacobs' description of the helpless situation of Blacks throughout the South in the fall of 1831. Fear of Insurrection, like the rest of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is understood as an important primary document on the life of a slave in the United States of the 19th century written by someone who lived it.

Turner's Rebellion & Reaction

Nat Turner's Rebellion (also known as the Southampton Insurrection) of 21-23 August 1831 was led by the educated slave and preacher Nat Turner (l. 1800-1831) and resulted in the deaths of at least 55 White people and 120 Blacks (no doubt more) in Southampton County, Virginia.

The revolt, the deadliest slave uprising in US history, terrified Whites in Virginia and other slave-holding states, who responded by instituting harsher slave laws, searching the homes of free Blacks and the quarters of slaves for weapons or "seditious reading material", and torturing slaves and free Blacks in hopes of wringing a confession from them that would betray any plans of a similar uprising.

At the time these persecutions were going on, Nat Turner was still at large. No one knew whether Turner had acted alone or if his revolt was part of a larger conspiracy. Gabriel's Rebellion of 1800 in Virginia, led by Gabriel Prosser (l. c. 1776-1800), sought to free all the slaves in Virginia and inspire uprisings elsewhere, with the ultimate goal of freeing all the slaves in the United States, and Denmark Vesey's Conspiracy (1822) in South Carolina had also been widespread and carefully planned. As far as the slave-holding community knew in the fall of 1831, Turner's rebellion might only be the opening salvo of an even larger insurrection, and other states might soon experience what Virginia had in Southampton County.

Turner was finally captured on 30 October 1831 and, while awaiting trial, granted an interview to the lawyer T. R. Gray (l. c. 1800 to c. 1834), which was published in November 1831 as The Confessions of Nat Turner. Once he was apprehended, it became clear he was the leader of the revolt, had acted alone, and there was no need to fear a wider conspiracy.

Between 23 August and 30 October, however, the slave-holding states lived in a kind of trembling expectation of what they felt sure would be the next phase of Turner's uprising and made the lives of their slaves and those of free Blacks a daily threat of beatings without provocation, searches of homes and persons, restriction of travel and gatherings, and indiscriminate murders.

⇒ Fear of Insurrection

#History #Abolitionism #HarrietJacobs #Slavery #USHistory #WHE

The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery; A Rediscovered Narrative, with a Full Biography

"The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery" presents readers with a largely unknown narrative written by John Swanson Jacobs, a formerly enslaved man, a biography of him, and other documents about his life. By making Jacobs’s narrative accessible and available, this volume will help scholars learn more about the global dimensions of slave narratives. This book is well-suited for both scholars and students and is highly recommended.

Discovering forgotten or overlooked sources is always exciting. Jonathan D. S. Schroeder recently rediscovered John Swanson Jacobs’s narrative The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery. Jacobs’s narrative, which had been published in an Australian newspaper in 1855, had been largely forgotten. Narratives published about slavery, captivity, and freedom are important primary sources for scholars. This narrative, which Schroeder correctly labels a global slave narrative, promises to help increase scholarly understandings of slavery and freedom in the Americas.

The volume contains three distinct sections. The first section is the narrative itself, which appears as it was published, albeit with minor corrections, extensive explanatory footnotes, and an introduction from Schroeder. Jacobs was the brother of Harriet Jacobs, the author of another famous narrative. Harriet Jacobs’s narrative, Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl (1861), was published under a pseudonym and heavily edited by white abolitionist Lydia Maria Child. John Jacobs’s narrative, on the other hand, was not subject to any editing by white abolitionists and appeared in an Australian newspaper, which spoke to how Jacobs’s life transcended the borders of the United States. Jacobs took to the sea and, like many other Black sailors, saw himself as a cosmopolitan and the world as his country. Jacobs’s narrative is well worth reading and Schroeder details how Jacobs challenged many of the conventions of enslaved narratives. In the first part of the narrative, Jacobs described his life, his enslaver’s relentless pursuit of Harriet, and his eventual escape to freedom. The second part foregrounded his stinging denunciation of U.S. law and politics, which, he contended, supported and reinforced slavery. He frequently called out specific politicians and correctly depicted Washington, D.C. as a city where slave traders sold human beings and politicians gambled rather than made laws. Interestingly, in light of the recent discussion about 1619 vs. 1776, Jacobs mentioned another date entirely—1522. His use of 1522 should remind readers that slavery did not begin in the Americas in 1619 and that it had existed for more than a century when the first enslaved people were brought to what is now the United States. “The history of the global slave narrative has yet to be told,” (xxx). Schroeder correctly concludes. Jacobs’s narrative will help scholars begin to tell this important story.

The second section of the book is an extended biography of Jacobs, written by Schroeder. Here Schroeder illustrates, in clear detail and powerful prose, Jacobs’s riveting life story. Schroder deftly illuminates Jacobs’s life, noting that he and Harriet “were born into an age of rebellion, and into a family that had resisted slavery for over a century” (80). Schroeder traces their family, explores how both siblings escaped slavery, their lives in the northern states, and John’s decision to leave the United States and relocate first to Australia and later to England. “Through courage, intelligence, and patience, he had walked away from slavery and social death and forged life after life—mariner, abolitionist, miner, husband, father” (178). Jacobs eventually returned to the U.S. in 1873 and died at the end of that year. He is buried in the Jacobs family plot at Mount Auburn Cemetery, but, until recently, his grave marker had sunk underground. “The burial and resurfacing of John Jacobs’s grave marker is an apt symbol for his disappearance from historical memory—and the work that remains to be done to resurrect him” (181). Schroeder also includes a fascinating discussion of why he believes the portrait long known as "The Man Holding the Liberator" (1848) is actually a portrait of Jacobs. The third section of the book contains an array of useful primary sources—both documents written by Jacobs and documents written about him.

Jonathan D. S. Schroeder, currently a Lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design, recently rediscovered John Swanson Jacobs’s narrative The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery. This book will appeal to anyone interested in learning more about slavery and freedom in the 19th-century world. It will work especially well in classes about historical methods as well as many other upper-level undergraduate courses and graduate classes.

#History #19thCentury #HarrietJacobs #Slavery

Harriet Jacobs and the Fight for Freedom

• Escaped years of oppression • Shared firsthand accounts of enslavement • Inspired awareness about the cruelty of slavery

The life journey of this escaped slave author reflects resilience, courage, and the power of storytelling in shaping history. https://traffickinginstitute.org/incontext-harriet-jacobs/

#HarrietJacobs #HistoryMatters #SlaveNarratives #FreedomStruggle #CivilRights #HistoricVoices #Education #human trafficking

Incidents dans la Vie d'une Jeune Esclave

Dans son ouvrage Incidents dans la Vie d'une Jeune Esclave (1861), Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) décrit la réaction de la communauté blanche d'Edenton, en Caroline du Nord, à la nouvelle de la rébellion de Nat Turner dans le comté de Southampton, en Virginie, au mois d'août 1831. Les événements décrits se sont répétés dans d'autres États esclavagistes à la même époque.

#Histoire #HarrietJacobs #Abolitionnisme #L'esclavage #HistoireDesÉtats-Unis

Harriet Jacobs

Harriet Jacobs (c. 1813-1897) était une ancienne esclave, une abolitionniste et l'auteur de Incidents dans la vie d'une jeune esclave (1861), son autobiographie, qui décrit sa vie d'esclave en Caroline du Nord, sa fuite vers la liberté dans le Nord et les expériences qu'elle y vécut. Son livre fait partie des documents primaires les plus importants sur l'esclavage dans l'Amérique du XIXe siècle.

#Histoire #HarrietJacobs #Abolitionnisme #L'esclavage

Seeking some human souls for salvation Jesus’s church might find acceptable Was a most difficult situation “His colored members… were respectable” #harrietjacobs #incidentsinthelifeofaslavegirl #textcomic #homeless #queens #littlemanilla (at Little Manila) https://www.instagram.com/p/CXB3SHWL3IX/?utm_medium=tumblr

#harrietjacobs #incidentsinthelifeofaslavegirl #textcomic #homeless #queens #littlemanilla

Today’s #blackhistorymonth #legend is #HarrietJacobs. #annefrank hid for 761 days from the Nazis. Jacobs hid for 7 years (!) in a tiny crawl space over her grandmother’s house to avoid sexual harassment by her owner. Then made a daring escape to the north. Her account of her life is worth reading. #incidentsinthelifeofaslavegirl Incredible bravery and resilience. (at Lochend, City of Edinburgh) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLongk7Dh18/?igshid=pobxnjaf4fmg

#blackhistorymonth #legend #harrietjacobs #annefrank #incidentsinthelifeofaslavegirl