Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself: With Related Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) - Tapa blanda

Much of what is known about the experience of slavery comes from first-person accounts written by formerly enslaved men. In this volume, Jennifer Fleischner examines the first- and best-known female account of life under, and escape from, slavery — Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography. In her introduction, Fleischner shows how Jacobs used the written word to liberate herself and promote the end of slavery by carefully discussing her sexual exploitation as a slave in ways that would inspire sympathy in — and not offend — her Victorian white, middle-class, female audience. The rich collection of related documents that accompany Jacobs’ complete narrative — including a selection of Jacobs’ letters and her brother’s account of some of the same incidents Jacobs describes — illuminate Jacobs’ life, her thoughts about writing, and her relationships with white women abolitionists. Document headnotes, a chronology, questions for consideration, a selected bibliography, and a chart of the pseudonyms Jacobs used for her real-life characters further enrich this important contribution to the history of slavery in America.

Jennifer Fleischner (Ph.D., Columbia) is a professor of English at Adelphi University. She is the author of Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave (2004) and Mastering Slavery: Memory, Family, and Identity in Women's Slave Narratives (1996), as well as the historical novel Nobody’s Boy (2006). With Susan Weisser she is also the co-editor of Feminist Nightmares: Women at Odds: Feminism and the Problem of Sisterhood (1994).