Incidents in the life of a slave girl / Harriet Jacobs ; with an introduction by Valerie Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jacobs, Harriet A. (Harriet Ann), 1813-1897.

Contributor:

Smith, Valerie, 1956- writer of introduction.

Joanna Banks Collection of African American Books (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Schomburg library of nineteenth-century Black women writers

The Schomburg library of nineteenth-century Black women writers

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jacobs, Harriet A. (Harriet Ann), 1813-1897.

Jacobs, Harriet A.

Enslaved persons--United States--Biography.

Enslaved persons.

United States.

Enslaved women--United States--Biography.

Enslaved women.

Jacobs, Harriet Ann, 1813-1897.

Local Subjects:

Jacobs, Harriet Ann, 1813-1897.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Penn Provenance:

Banks, Joanna (donor) (Banks Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xl, 306 pages, 6 unnumbered pages ; 17 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 1988.

Summary:

Not only one of the last of over one hundred slave narratives published separately before the Civil War, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) is also one of the few existing narratives written by a woman. It offers a unique perspective on the complex plight of the black woman as slave and as writer. In a story that merges the conventions of the slave narrative with the techniques of the sentimental novel, Harriet Jacobs describes her efforts to fight off the advances of her master, her eventual liaison with another white man (the father of two of her children), and her ultimately successful struggle for freedom. Jacobs' account of her experiences, and her search for her own voice, prefigure the literary and ideological concerns of generations of African-American women writers to come.

Notes:

Reprint. Originally published : Boston : For the Author, 1861.

"Whenever possible, the volumes in this set were reproduced directly from original materials. When availability, physical condition of original texts, or other circumstances prohibited this, volumes or portions of volumes were reset."--Publisher's Note.

"Published in 1861, Harriet Jacobs's 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl' is one of the last of over a hundred slave narratives published separately before the Civil War ... As one of the few extant narratives written by a woman, Jacobs's 'Incidents' (written under the pseudonym of Linda Brent) provides a unique perspective on the complex position of the black woman as slave and as writer."--Introduction.

Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards - Nonfiction, Winner, 1989

Local Notes:

Kislak Center Banks Collection copy presented to the Penn Libraries in 2018 by Joanna Banks.

ISBN:

0195052439

9780195052435

0195052676

9780195052671

0195066707

9780195066708

OCLC:

16901343