Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl;
Written by Herself by Harriet Jacobs
Editor Nell Irvin Painter
Introduction by Nell Irvin Painter
Notes by Nell Irvin Painter
Penguin Classic · Paperback
Publication Date: 2000
ISBN 0140437959 · 277 pages · $10.95
One of the most important books ever written documenting
the traumas and horrors of slavery in the antebellum South.
A haunting, evocative recounting of her life as a
slave in North Carolina and of her final escape and emancipation,
Harriet Jacob's classic narrative, written between 1853 and 1858
and published pseudonymously in 1861, tells firsthand of the horrors
inflicted on slaves. In writing this extraordinary memoir, which
culminates in the seven years she spent hiding in a crawl space
in her grandmother's attic, Jacobs skillfully used the literary
generes of her time, presenting a thoroughly feminist narrative
that portrays the evils and traumas of slavery, particularly for
women and children.
Now with an introduction by renowned historian Nell
Irivn Painter, this edition also includes "A True Tale of Slavery,"
the brief memoir of Harriet Jacob's brother, John S. Jacobs, originally
published in a London periodical in 1861.
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