Harriet Jacobs

By Jean Fagan Yellin,

Book cover of Harriet Jacobs: The Remarkable Adventures of the Woman Who Wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Book description

Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains the most-read woman's slave narrative of all time. Jean Fagan Yellin recounts the experiences that shaped Incidents-the years Jacobs spent hiding in her grandmother's attic from her sexually abusive master-as well as illuminating the wider world into which Jacobs…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Harriet Jacobs as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Like the thousands of other readers who’d been haunted by Harriet Jacobs’ 1861 autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl when it resurfaced during the civil rights era, I had questions.  Were the horrific events of her enslavement and escape really true?  Did Jacobs herself write the book, or was it the work of the white abolitionist she identified as her “editor”? In this biography, we’re given answers based on the documentary evidence Jean Yellin unearthed over 30 years of research. We learn that Jacobs’ stranger-than-fiction slavery narrative is factually accurate and that it was the work of…

From Katie's list on Black women disruptors.

Want books like Harriet Jacobs?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Harriet Jacobs.

Browse books like Harriet Jacobs

Book cover of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision
Book cover of The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice
Book cover of Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,213

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in slaves, social reformers, and authors?

Slaves 106 books
Social Reformers 37 books
Authors 198 books