Jacobs, Harriet (Linda Brent) ( 1813 – 18 97 )
Considered a “literary foremother,” Harriet Jacobs
continues to engage scholars, critics, and story-
tellers. Her life as a former slave, devoted mother,
writer, and activist inspires readers with her hum-
ble tales of the experiences she had to endure as
a young, vulnerable African-American slave girl.
Born in 1813 in North Carolina, Jacobs was left
an orphan during her young adulthood after the
death of both parents. Although slavery as an insti-
tution often compromised strong familial bonds—
through slave auctions, the removal of children
from their parents, and the practice of forbidding
marriage among slaves—Jacobs had a close rela-
tionship with her family, particularly her grand-
mother. However, in the end, her family could not
protect her from the advances of her slave owner,
Dr. James Norcom. Educated and light-skinned
(one of her grandfathers was white), Jacobs admits
that she led an easier life than many slaves; never-
theless, she illustrates that the constant threat of
rape and of losing her children was psychologically
as damaging as some of the most horrific stories of
slavery and torture.
Unable to protect herself completely from ei-
ther Norcom’s advances or his wife’s anger, Jacobs
decided to take a lover, Samuel Tredwell Sawyer.
Hoping that her relationship with another man
would dissuade Dr. Norcom from his “seduction,”
Jacobs continued the relationship with Sawyer for
years, ultimately producing two children. The re-
lationship offended her pious grandmother, which
devastated Jacobs. Deciding finally that Dr. Nor-
com would not let her go or leave her alone, she
pretended to run away and lived in hiding for seven
years in the crawlspace of her grandmother’s shed.
By the time she was finally able to escape, Jacobs
was physically weakened. Heading north, she was
ultimately reunited with one of her children (who
had been purchased by Sawyer from Norcom).
While a fugitive she found sanctuary among and
received assistance from white abolitionists.
Later, after meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, au-
thor of the best-selling 19th-century novel Uncle
Tom’s Cabin, Jacobs decided to write her own nar-
rative. INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SL AV E GIRL (1861),
which was edited by Lydia Maria Child (1802–
1880), a writer of historical novels, abolitionist,
and editor of the National Antislavery Standard.
Using the pseudonym Linda Brent and changing
the names and locales to further hide her identity
and location, Jacobs declared in the preface to her
narrative: “Reader, be assured this narrative is not
fiction.... I have not exaggerated the wrongs in-
flicted by Slavery; on the contrary, my descriptions
fall far short of the facts” (xiii). Jacobs was able to
elude Norcom, his family, and the slave catchers
after the narrative was published. Later in her life,
Cornelia Willis, her employer, purchased Jacobs’s
freedom.
For many years, historians erroneously believed
Child had written Jacobs’s narrative. It was not
until the l970s, when Jean Fagan Yellin was able to
prove that “Linda Brent” did exist, that critics and
readers could fully appreciate the life of Harriet
Jacobs. Jacobs was a tireless abolitionist and later
a crusader for the rights of African Americans and
women. She started a free school in the South dur-
ing the Civil War (under the guard of the Union
Army) and tended the wounded. She was later ac-
tively involved with the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, and with
her daughter she continued teaching and fighting
for women’s rights in Washington, D.C., where she
died in 1897. Her work as a writer and as an activist
complemented each other. Her family, her dream
of their togetherness in a warm home, was the vi-
sion of ideal freedom and a dream that should be
open to all Americans.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beardslee, Karen E. “Through Slave Culture’s Lens
Comes the Abundant Source: Harriet A. Jacobs’s
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” MELUS 24, no.
1 (1999): 37–58.
Yellin, Jean Fagan. Harriet Jacobs: A Life. New York:
Basic Civitas, 2004.
Tracie Church GuzzioJames, Glenroy Winston (1967– )
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Glenroy Winston James
immigrated with his family to New Jersey in 1971272 Jacobs, Harriet