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Harriet Jacobs

Harriet Jacobs. Born a slave in Edenton, NC, 1813. She worked as a domestic slave. Sent to her mistress’s niece. Her master Dr. James Norcom sought to abuse her. She elects to engage in a relationship with Samuel Tredwell Sawyer, a white neighbor.

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Harriet Jacobs

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  1. Harriet Jacobs

  2. Born a slave in Edenton, NC, 1813. • She worked as a domestic slave. • Sent to her mistress’s niece. • Her master Dr. James Norcom sought to abuse her. • She elects to engage in a relationship with Samuel TredwellSawyer, a white neighbor. • They have two children (Joseph and Louisa) • Eventually sent to a plantation b/of her refusal of her master.

  3. She hides and he sells her children to their white father, who allowed them to live with their free grandmother Molly Horniblow. • For 7 years she lived in an attic crawl space. • She read the bible, sewed, and planned their freedom. • In 1842, she escapes north. • She joins various political organizations including a circle of anti-slavery feminists. • Amy Post gets her to write her narrative.

  4. She was uneasy about presenting her life to the public. • Intended to have Harriet Beecher Stowe shape the narrative. (Amy Post facilitates.) • Stowe insults her daughter Louisa. • Stowe seeks verification from Cornelia Willis. • The writing took five years. It was completed in 1858. • Couldn’t find a publisher whose terms she would agree to.

  5. Boston firm of Thayer and Eldridge agree if she gets an introduction by Lydia Maria Child. • Incidents is published privately in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent and then picked up the following year by a London publisher. • Received little critical interest until 1981. • Jean Fagan Yellin uses correspondence to validate text (1987 ed).

  6. The Framing • Preface by Jacobs • Non-fiction—(in fact, I haven’t told you all the horrors of slavery). • Protects individuals by giving them other names. • Not seeking fame as an author or sympathy for myself. • Appeal to the women of the north (woman to woman for the suffering of 2 million women). • Show you what slavery really is.

  7. Child’s intro. • I know her. • Don’t doubt her. • She wrote it. She is unusually literate. I just arranged it. • Public needs to know the truth of the institution of slavery. • Women you need to take up your duty. • Northern men fight against the fugitive slave law!

  8. Questions: • How does slavery corrupt the moral and sentimental ideals of society? • How does Jacobs position herself (with her account) in the space between those social/moral expectations and the reality of slavery? • In other words: how does her account adopt and at the same time subvert the conventions of sentimentalism? • How does slavery pervert “normal” relationships between men and women? (e.g. between husbands and wives) • What other ideas of public and private morality does slavery pervert/undermine?

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