Harriet Ann Jacobs

Harriet Ann Jacobs – Life, Work, and Legacy

Discover the life of Harriet Ann Jacobs (1813/1815–1897), African-American writer and abolitionist. Learn about her courageous escape from slavery, her classic Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and her impact on feminist and African American literature.

Introduction

Harriet Ann Jacobs is one of the most important voices in 19th-century American literature and social reform. Enslaved from birth, Jacobs survived sexual harassment, motherhood under bondage, years of hiding, and separation from her children. She ultimately escaped and wrote a powerful autobiography—Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)—that gives rare insight into the lives of enslaved women, their struggles, and the moral compromises imposed by slavery. Her story resonates across history as a testimony of resilience, motherhood, and the long struggle for human dignity.

Early Life and Family

Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina, in either 1813 or 1815 (many sources favor 1813).
Her mother was Delilah Horniblow, an enslaved woman. Her father, according to some accounts, was Elijah Knox, a skilled carpenter (also enslaved) who was permitted certain privileges because of his labor skills.

Because of the legal doctrine partus sequitur ventrem (that a child’s status follows that of the mother), Harriet and her brother John Jacobs were born into slavery.

Harriet’s mother died when Harriet was quite young (around age six), after which Harriet was placed under the control of her mother’s former owner.
Her grandmother, Molly Horniblow, became an important figure in her life—offering protection, guidance, and care.

Jacobs was taught to read and write at a young age—an uncommon opportunity for an enslaved person in her time.

Life under Slavery, Harassment, and Concealment

Early Hardships & Sexual Harassment

When Jacobs was a young woman, she came under the control of Dr. James Norcom (Dr. Norcom), who became her enslaver (through inheritance or other means).
Norcom subjected her to ongoing sexual harassment and threatened her with separation from her children if she resisted.

Jacobs entered into a relationship with Samuel Sawyer, a white lawyer, in part for protection and to secure some degree of agency over her life. She bore two children—Joseph (c. 1829) and Louisa Matilda (c. 1833).

Throughout this period, Jacobs lived under constant threat—not only from Norcom, but from the legal and social system that enabled slaveholders to reassert control and separate families.

Hiding in the “Garret”

By 1835, Norcom intensified his efforts to reclaim control over Jacobs. Fearing she would lose her children, Jacobs decided to escape.
She first fled and stayed in various hiding places, including swamps, but ultimately found refuge in a tiny concealed space—a crawlspace or garret above her grandmother’s home. The room was extremely cramped: roughly 9 ft × 7 ft, and only 3 ft high at its tallest point—so low that she could not stand upright. She lived there for nearly seven years.

During those years, the space was ventilated by small air holes; Jacobs subsisted on minimal conditions, reading the Bible, newspapers, and sewing to occupy her mind.

In the meantime, Norcom sold the children and her brother to prevent her from having influence or contact—but through various maneuvers and alliances, they were not irretrievably lost.

Escape, Freedom, and Literary Work

Escape North & Life in Free Territories

In 1842, Jacobs managed to escape by boat via Philadelphia and eventually reached New York City, where she found refuge with abolitionist networks.
She gained employment as a nanny in the home of Mary Stace Willis (wife of Nathaniel Parker Willis), which provided a degree of security and stability.

Because of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Jacobs lived under the constant threat of being re-enslaved even in the North. She sometimes had to relocate for safety.

In 1852, Cornelia Grinnell Willis (wife of Nathaniel Willis) purchased Jacobs’s legal freedom for $300—a transaction Jacobs accepted but later reflected upon with mixed feelings.

Writing Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Even before her freedom was fully secured, Jacobs resolved to tell her story. In 1853, she published a letter titled “A Fugitive Slave” to the New York Tribune, protesting pro-slavery arguments.
She wrote her autobiography in secret, often after long days of work and in nights, under the pseudonym Linda Brent.
The manuscript was published in January 1861 with Lydia Maria Child as editor and with a preface by her.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself is among the few slave narratives authored by a woman, and the only major one dealing explicitly with sexual oppression, motherhood, and female agency in slavery.
Jacobs’s narrative was at first misattributed or considered fictional, but later scholarship (notably by Jean Fagan Yellin) confirmed its authenticity and importance.

Activism, Relief Work, and Later Years

Civil War & Relief Efforts

During the Civil War, Harriet Jacobs committed herself to helping freedmen and fugitive slaves. She lived in Alexandria, Virginia (under Union control) and distributed clothing, blankets, and basic necessities.
She helped establish the Jacobs School in Alexandria (1864) to educate formerly enslaved children. Her daughter Louisa Matilda Jacobs was involved as a teacher.
In the fall of 1865, mother and daughter moved to Savannah, Georgia, to extend their relief work—distributing aid and trying to open schools.

Final Years & Death

After the war, Jacobs and her daughter ran boarding houses in Cambridge, Massachusetts and later in Washington, D.C. to support themselves.
Harriet Jacobs died on March 7, 1897, in Washington, D.C. She was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near her brother.
Her tombstone bears the inscription:

“Patient in tribulation, fervent in spirit serving the Lord.”

Style, Themes & Influence

Literary Style: Jacobs wrote in a style shaped by 19th-century edifying and religious prose, but infused with her own moral urgency and lived emotional texture.
She had to navigate constraints—cultural expectations, censorship, audience sensibilities—and thus adopts a tone that balances restraint and revelation.

Major Themes:

• Sexual exploitation and power dynamics in slavery—Jacobs foregrounds the unique vulnerabilities enslaved women faced.

• Motherhood under bondage—the agonies of separation, the risk of sale of children, and the moral complexities of motherhood in an oppressive system.

• Resistance, agency, and secrecy—her years in hiding embody survival strategies, spiritual resilience, and moral defiance.

• Education, literacy, and self-representation—her access to reading and writing allowed her to craft her own narrative, reclaim voice, and intervene in abolitionist discourse.

• Reconciliation of faith and justice—her Christian faith appears as an anchor and lens through which she views suffering, hope, and moral calling.

Influence & Legacy:

• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is now considered a classic of African American literature and feminist history.

• Because she wrote her own narrative (instead of relying on a white editor or “as-told-to” model), her voice has been reclaimed as pioneering in women’s and black autobiography.

• Her writings have heavily influenced scholarship in African American women’s history, slavery studies, and feminist theory.

• Her life inspired later writers and activists to explore the intersections of gender, race, and power.

Selected Quotations

While Harriet Jacobs did not leave a large body of “quotables,” a few lines stand out as powerful reflections of her moral insight:

• “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

• “Where can a slave find stronger armor than the hope of freedom?”

• “I would never use my child's liberty to purchase my own.”

• “I have suffered much, but in silence; those whom I love best have died and I could not weep openly.”

These lines—often cited in modern anthologies—capture her spiritual depth, maternal polarity, and quiet moral force.

Lessons from Harriet Ann Jacobs

• Voice matters, even in silence. Jacobs used the limited means available to her—night writing, pseudonym, coded narratives—to reclaim her story.

• The personal is political. Her revelations about sexual abuse, motherhood, and family separation make her narrative a critique of slavery from within experience.

• Resilience in confinement. Her seven years of hiding illustrate psychological as well as physical endurance—and the power of inner life.

• Intersectional witness. Jacobs’s perspective as a woman, mother, and formerly enslaved person amplifies issues often marginalized in male-dominated narratives of slavery.

• Legacy through testimony. Even when her book faded from view after the Civil War, later generations reclaimed and elevated her voice—proving that testimony can outlast immediate recognition.

Conclusion

Harriet Ann Jacobs’s life is a testament to survival, moral courage, and the transformative power of narrative. Through Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, she helped shift the discourse around slavery—urging readers to see the intimate devastation it inflicts on women and families. Her activism during and after the Civil War shows her commitment to more than personal freedom: she labored for education, relief, and uplift among formerly enslaved peoples.