US History

American Literature

Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

Women

African Americans

This collection uses primary sources to explore Harriet Jacobs&#39; Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Excerpts from *Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl* by Harriet Jacobs, under pseudonym Linda Brent, 1861. 

Title page from *The Deeper Wrong or Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl*, the edition of Jacobs’ work published in London in 1862.

A portrait of Lydia Maria Child, an abolitionist who helped Harriet Jacobs to prepare her narrative for publication.

For much of the twentieth century, Child was credited with either making up or highly embellishing much of Jacobs' narrative as historians resisted crediting the work to Jacobs. In the 1970s and 1980s, historian Jean Fagan Yellin used historical documents and Jacobs’ letters to verify that she not only wrote the book but that it was true to her life experience.


A runaway slave advertisement placed by Dr. James Norcom, enslaver of Harriet Jacobs, 1830.

Dr. James Norcom, Jacobs’ enslaver, placed this runaway slave advertisement in the newspaper for a man named Derry. Five years later, when she disappeared, Norcom placed an ad for her return as well, offering $100 as a reward.

“A True Tale of Slavery,” by John S. Jacobs, from *The Leisure Hour: A Family Journal of Instruction and Recreation*, 1861.

Jacobs’ brother John (referred to as William in the book) also wrote of his experience of slavery and of his and her escapes. His narrative appeared in four issues of *The Leisure Hour: A Family Journal of Instruction and Recreation*.

A selection of runaway slave advertisements from *The American Anti-Slavery Almanac*, 1838. 

At least two of the runaway slave advertisements specifically note the light complexions of the enslaved men who allegedly ran away. Harriet Jacobs wrote about how common it was in the South to see enslaved people with fair skin tones, an indication that they were born as a result of a sexual encounter between white slaveholding men and enslaved women.


An illustration from *The American Anti-Slavery Almanac* depicting an enslaved woman separated from her children, 1838.

A photograph showing a formerly enslaved woman named Betty with her great granddaughters, 1867.

A photograph of an enslaved woman named Frances and her enslaver’s young daughter, Sallie Smith, ca. 1860.

A drawing depicting a slave market in Charleston, South Carolina, 1833.

A bill of sale for an enslaved woman named Margaret who was pregnant at the time of the sale, 1858.

Transcript:

State of South-Carolina. 
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, That I 
Benjamin D. Lazarus 
for and in consideration of the sum of One Thousand Dollars 
to me in hand paid, at and before the sealing and delivery of these Presents, 
By Francis A. Mitchell 
(the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge) have bargained and sold, and by these Presents do bargain, sell and deliver to the said Francis A. Mitchell. A certain female slave named Margaret warranted [some?] and presumed to be in a state of pregnancy 
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the said: Slave Margaret with her future issue and increase 
unto the said Francis A. Mitchell, his 
Executors, Administrators, and Assigns to his and their only proper use and behoof forever. And I the said Benjamin D. Lazarus my Executors and Administrators, the said bargained premises unto the said Francis A. Mitchell, his 
Executors, Administrators and Assigns, from and against all persons shall and will WARRANT and FOREVER DEFEND by these Presents. 
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my Hand and Seal Dated at Charleston on the 14th day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty eight and in the Eighty third year of the Independence of the United States of America. 
Sealed and delivered in the presence of Emma Lazarus. 
Benj[amin] Lazarus

A broadside advertising an auction of enslaved men and a woman, 1856.

This broadside lists by name enslaved men and a woman to be sold at auction. The penciled notations to the left of the names indicate the sale prices for each person. Enslaved people’s monetary value depended on factors including age, health, and skills. Some of the people listed are identified by their color or racial makeup as well; “griff” was a term indicating lighter skin color or mixed ancestry. The abbreviation “do” means “ditto.”

A carte de visite of Isaac and Rosa, slave children from New Orleans, 1863.

This carte de visite was created during the Civil War and widely distributed in the North in order to boost support for the war effort. Even for non-abolitionists, photographs like this one showing white, or nearly white, enslaved children were shocking evidence of illicit relationships between white men and enslaved women. For many white Northerners, these photographs would have brought to mind the image of their own children as slaves, inspiring support for the war and an end to slavery.

A letter by abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman on stationery with a printed image of an enslaved mother separated from her children, 1839.

Maria Weston Chapman was an abolitionist and leader in the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.

Transcript:

Dear Debora[h], 
Tell me if this straw is what Mary Congdon wants? It costs nothing. If it will do, I can send home more. Right & Wrong will be out this week.

A letter from Francis Jackson to Lydia Maria Child about Thomas Sims, who was arrested and re-enslaved under the Fugitive Slave Law, 1860.

Francis Jackson was an abolitionist in Boston and an active member of the city’s Vigilance Committee, which had been established to resist the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Thomas Sims was a formerly enslaved man who was arrested under the auspices of this law and returned to slavery from Massachusetts. For Harriet as well as her brother, the Fugitive Slave Law made arrest and return to enslavement an ever-present threat. In 1852, Harriet’s employer purchased her freedom, making her legally free and protecting her from the reach of the law.

Transcript:

Dear Friend, 
Your letter of Aug. 31 was duly rec’d [received] requesting me to give you some facts about Thomas Sims. I will do so with pleasure -- Sims was a mulatto man about 23 years of age, a mason by trade, he was claimed by James Potter of Savannah as his slave -- was arrested in Boston on the 10th of April 1851 by the notorious Asa O Butman & other Policemen then in the employ of the City authorities of Boston, who at the time, falsely charged him with stealing a watch -- not of the U.S. officers assisted in the arrest of Sims -- he was imprisoned in the City Court House. had what was called his trial there, after which the whole Police force of the City under the command of the City Marshall took him down the Long Wharf, & put him on board the Brig Acorn. Capt. Combs bound for Savannah -- the Mayor of the City gave orders to have a regiment of Infantry on duty quartered in Faneuil Hall commanded by Genl [General] Edmands (Edwards?) (a member of the Baptist Church,) and also 1500 of the first Merchants & others volunteers to assist Marshall Sukey. This Regt [regiment] was derisively called & long known as the Sims Brigade. 

These facts of the rendition of Sims, are more fully & minutely stated in the testimony of Mayor Bigelow. Marshal Sukey and others, taken under oath before a committee of the Legislature (see the Senate document of the Mass Legislature No 89: also the annual report of the City Auditor for 1851-52 Page 48 which states that it cost the City 2996.95 to enslave Sims. In less than three months after, these same City authorities celebrated the Declaration made at Philadelphia on the fourth of July 1776, to wit: “that all men are born free & equal” by oration, Feasting sentiment & song by ringing Church bells, firing of cannon & the explosions of fireworks -- That crop of hypocrisy cost the City 6935.99[?] dollars, as may be seen on the 10th page of the City Auditors report before referred to -- page 10 and 48 in that City document give lie to each other flatly and costly. 

At the time of the rendition of Sims, money enough was raised & pledged to ransom him, but Mr. Potter refused to sell him at any price, he demanded that the Case[?] should be executed & Sims should go back -- he wanted to humble Boston & he did most thoroughly -- A simple slaveholder of Savannah had all the City officials & Police force of the City, a Regiment of troops & 1500 volunteers of the first Merchants & other harnessed to his work at their own cost and he spurned their money. 

In the Brig Acorn went poor Sims, guarded by Deputy Marshall Riley & seven other slave hounds, named Byrnes, Darwin, Russell, Coolidges, Clark, True & Dolliver -- they delivered their prey to Mr. Bacon, Potter’s overseer; he did not condescend to speak to them. Sims was taken to jail, whipt & kept in prison three months & became sick. -- The Physician who attended the inmates of the jail told Mr. Potter that Sims would die if he was kept much longer in prison -- he was then taken out and sent into the Country, where he soon recovered & hired out to work at his trade, with a man who treated him very badly, when Sims requested his Master sell him -- runaway slaves being very unsaleable where known he was sent to Charleston S.C. & consigned to one Moredecai a Jew broker for sale, who held him at 1200 dollars for some time without finding a purchaser. at length Mordecai bought him & shit him to New Orleans on speculations He was there sold to a man in Vicksburg a mason and Sims acts as his Boss & is an expert bricklayer -- 

While Sims was on sale in Charleston William J. Stevens of N.H. then doing business in Charleston had several interviews with Sims & became much attached to him, & had laid plans for his escape from slavery, but before they could be carried out, he was sent to New Orleans. These facts about Sims after he landed in Savannah, I had from Mr. Stevens, a very reliable & intelligent man, who now lives in West Newton Street & is a partner in business with my brother, Edmund Jackson in this City.

Mrs. Cornelia Sykes our sister of Sims now lives at No. 28 Irving Street, she corresponds with Sims. - she has shown me one of Sims letters dated at Vicksburg Sept. 1859 from which I made the following extract, “I hope you will remember me to those dear friends in Boston whose hearts bled with sorrow when I was sent away from that City, which I hope to reach again one day, if God spares my life, and join hands with them & struggle for my right to freedom. I am under a thousands obligations to them, for their kindness to me in the hours of my deepest distress. I hope I may yet have an opportunity to recompense them. I am constantly watched and oppressed by the man who owns me which makes my chances of escape very small. I don’t think he would sell me for less than about 1500 or 1800 dollars. Yet I do live in hopes of seeing those friends in Boston again.” 

Since Senator Masons Fugitive Slave Bill was enacted in 1850, three fugitive slaves have been arrested in Boston, Shadrach, Sims, & Burns; Shadrach was rescued & Burns has been ransomed. Sims had as good a right to live in Boston as ever I had; are those who enslaved him going to let him died in slavery & they in their sins? And go up to judgment leaving their inhuman doings unattended and unrepented of?

Ever Yours, Francis Jackson

Questions

1. Compare the titles given to the [1861 US edition](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1126) and the [1862 British edition](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1127) of Jacobs’ book. What is the significance of the phrase “the deeper wrong”? 
2. Dr. Norcom’s advertisement for Harriet’s return in 1835 offered four times as much reward as this [ad for Derry](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1129). Given the details of Jacobs’ life as recounted in *Incidents*, why do you think Norcom valued her so highly?
3. One of the themes Jacobs describes in *Incidents* is the constant threat slavery posed of separating families (i.e. chapter three or Harriet’s conversation with Fanny in chapter thirty). Using her narrative and the [illustration from *Anti-Slavery Almanac*](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1132), the [drawing of the slave market](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1135), and the [bill of sale for Margaret](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1136), explain why this was a powerful argument for the abolitionist movement.
4. Jacobs describes not only her experience of sexual predation by her enslaver but, in chapter six, how common it was to see enslaved children with light skin, often nearly “white,” that were the products of these forced relationships. How do the [photograph of Isaac and Rosa](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1138), the [runaway slave advertisements](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1131), and the [broadside advertising a slave auction](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1137) reflect American anxiety about enslaved people with light skin tones? How might the [photograph of Isaac and Rosa](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1138) have increased white Northerners’ support for the Civil War and Emancipation in 1863?
5. [Francis Jackson’s letter](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1140) recounts how Thomas Sims, who had escaped slavery to freedom in Boston, was re-enslaved under the auspices of the Fugitive Slave Law. How did the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law impact Jacobs, her children, and her brother? What does Jackson’s letter reveal about the tension between abolitionist communities and government power when it came to the lives of men and women who had escaped slavery?

Activity

Jacobs and her [brother John](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl-by-harriet-jacobs/sources/1130) each wrote about their upbringing, enslavement, and escapes to freedom. Ask students to choose another figure in *Incidents* and write an account of the same years from his or her perspective. Students might select the grandmother Molly Horniblow, Dr. James Norcom, or one of Jacobs' children, Joseph and Louisa.

Teaching Guide: Exploring *Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl*

Resources

1. [*Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl*](http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/menu.html) by Harriet Jacobs, full text and related documents, Documenting the American South, UNC Chapel Hill. 
2. [Runaway advertisement for Harriet Jacobs](http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=8&psid=2498&filepath=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/primarysources_upload/images/notice_l.jpg) from *American Beacon*, July 4, 1835, Digital History. 
3. “[The Young White Faces of Slavery](http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/the-young-white-faces-of-slavery/?_r=0),” *The New York Times* Disunion blog.  

Overview

In 1861, Harriet Jacobs published *Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl*, an account of her experience of enslavement in Edenton, North Carolina. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent and changed all of names in the book to protect the identity and safety of her family. *Incidents* soon became one of the most widely read slave narratives written by a woman. Jacobs used the book to highlight the unique cruelties of slavery experienced by women, including sexual abuse, exploitation, and violence.

As a teenager and young woman, Jacobs was subjected to violent sexual advances by her married enslaver Dr. James Norcom. To prevent her victimization by Norcom, Jacobs sought out a relationship with another white man, Samuel Tredwell Sawyer, with whom she had two children. In order to escape and save her children from a future of enslavement, Jacobs ran away by faking her escape to New York. Meanwhile, she hid in a crawlspace above her grandmother’s shed for seven years, where she could continue to watch from afar as her children grew up (they were eventually sold by Norcom and granted relative freedom by their father). In 1842, Jacobs escaped to the North, where she reunited with her children, became acquainted with abolitionist circles, and eventually wrote her autobiography in her free time outside of her work as a caretaker. 

For northern readers and especially women, Jacobs’ book was groundbreaking in its explicit and honest account of the prevalence of sexual relationships forced upon enslaved women by white men, the constant threat of separation among enslaved families, and the pain and fear inherent in raising children who legally belonged to someone else.

English

*Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl* by Harriet Jacobs

incidents-life-slave-girl-harriet-jacobs_12_b27ac4bb847f0e43a5f833b864e7c1d3.jpg

Courtesy of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Illinois Digital Heritage Hub.


“Slave Sale Broadside,” Digital Public Library of America.

A broadside advertising an auction of enslaved men and a woman, 1856.

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Item 12 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs