Born: 1813 or 1815, United States
Died: 7 March 1897
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Linda Brent
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
On this day in 1897, Harriet Jacobs, born between 1813 and 1815, died in Washington, D.C. She was enslaved in Edenton, North Carolina, where she suffered sexual harassment from her enslaver, Dr. Norcom. She hid in a small space for seven years to protect her children from being sold. Jacobs finally escaped to the North, found freedom, and reunited with her children. In New York City, she joined abolitionist and feminist groups. During the Civil War, she helped fugitive and freed slaves in Union-occupied Confederate areas and set up schools. She wrote an autobiography, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” under the pseudonym Linda Brent in 1861. The book, now an “American classic,” gives a plain account of the horrors of slavery and her path to freedom.
Read more (Wikipedia)
Read more (Black Past)
Read more (Women’s History Blog)