Book Description:
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs is one of the most important and haunting slave narratives in American literature — a deeply personal, firsthand account of a woman’s endurance under slavery and her fight for freedom. Writing under the pseudonym Linda Brent, Jacobs reveals the unique struggles faced by enslaved women, including sexual exploitation, the loss of children, and the constant threat of violence.
With striking honesty and emotional depth, Jacobs recounts her harrowing experiences in North Carolina, including years spent hiding in a cramped attic crawl space to escape her abusive enslaver. Her narrative is not only a testimony of survival, but a passionate plea for justice and the abolition of slavery, aimed squarely at Northern white women of the time.
First published in 1861, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl broke new ground by centering a Black woman’s voice in the literature of resistance, and it continues to resonate as a powerful statement of courage, resilience, and moral clarity.
