Harriet Jacobs

Lore & Background

Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina, to Delilah Horniblow, who was enslaved by the Horniblow family. Under the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, Harriet and her brother John were enslaved at birth. Her father, Elijah Knox, was an enslaved carpenter who died in 1826. After her mother died when Jacobs was six, she lived with her owner, who taught her to sew, read, and write. In 1825, she was willed to three-year-old Mary Matilda Norcom, and Dr. James Norcom became her de facto master. Norcom soon began sexually harassing Jacobs, causing his wife's jealousy. When Jacobs fell in love with a free black man, Norcom forbade the relationship. Jacobs then began a relationship with white lawyer Samuel Sawyer, who fathered her children Joseph (born 1829/30) and Louisa Matilda (born 1832/33).

Reader's Guide

Harriet Jacobs's significance lies in her firsthand account of the sexual exploitation and psychological torment endured by enslaved women, a topic often omitted from earlier slave narratives. Her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published under the pseudonym Linda Brent, provides a detailed depiction of her seven-year concealment and her eventual escape. The work is now regarded as an American classic and a crucial document for understanding the gendered experience of slavery. Jacobs's legacy also includes her post-Civil War efforts to aid freed people, establishing schools in the South. Her narrative challenges the dominant antebellum literary conventions and offers a powerful voice from the margins of American history.

Did You Know?

• Harriet Jacobs hid for seven years in a crawl space under her grandmother's roof that was only 3 feet at its highest point.
• She bore holes in the wall to allow fresh air and light into her hiding place.
• Her children were fathered by white lawyer Samuel Sawyer, who later became a U.S. Representative.
• After the Civil War, she founded two schools for fugitive and freed slaves.