Harriet Jacobs: Life After Book

"White abolitionist propaganda in the antebellum era only rarely discussed how slave women resisted sexual exploitation. Jacobs was a woman motivated by a desire for freedom much stronger than a fear of sexual retribution" (1)


Harriet Jacobs contributed to American society beyond her controversial expose of autobiographical works. She was apart of the reform movement to abolish slavery and disclose the myths about the state of submission. For Jacobs, writing was more than sharing her story as a former slave; a way to cleanse herself from the abuse and torture in the hands of her former master Norcom. It was a desperate plea to end all suffering in the hands of someone having the authority over another. She also further the progression of women's rights for enslaved black women in the south. She "especially intended to get people to understand the horrors of slavery for women. Jacobs achieved her goal by seeking to touch the hearts of Northern white women and accordingly, wrote to the extent possible in their idiom."(2). After her book, she continued to struggle for African American rights because these privileges were indeed entiled theirs.Besides her major literary contributions, Jacobs achieved greater heights with communities. She was a member of various groups which included the Female Anti-Slavery Society, and spent most of her lifetime volunteering to refugees from the civil war. She continued to write and advocate the seriousness of the relief that was needed for poor free blacks. In August 1862, Jacobs worked in Alexandria, VA where she organized relief efforts for the hungry and "operated a boardinghouse that catered to students and faculty at Harvard University"(5). Jacobs wrote to William Lloyd Garrison whom was well known for his abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator ; DEAR MR. GARRISON:" Let me beg the reader's attention to these orphans. They are the innocent and helpless of God's poor. If you cannot take one, you can do much by contributing your mite to the institution that will open its doors to receive them... I found men, women and children all huddled together, without any distinction or regard to age or sex. Some of them were in the most pitiable condition. Many were sick with measles, diphtheria, scarlet and typhoid fever. Some had a few filthy rags to lie on; others had nothing but the bare floor for a couch"(3). Barracks were built to honor her request and the government recognized the issue of their living conditions, and in 1863 Harriet also established The Jacobs Free School in Alexandria, providing black teachers for the refugees. In December 1864, Alexandria School received donations to help provide for the children along with monetary donations they received; books, slates, and writing materials. She also helped establish the National Association of Colored Women and continued to fight for the rights of African Americans engaging them to fight for better wages and land. Harriet died on March 7, 1897, at the age of 84. She is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Her grave stone reads"Patient in tribulation, fervent in spirit serving the Lord."
Rewards......
Jacobs would not be fully rewarded until 1987, when Dr. Yellin, a professor of English published an edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl with Harvard University Press. Yellin issued the print of Harriet Jacobs story that featured chronicled descriptions of Jacobs' remarkable passage across advocating freedom in nineteenth century America. Her memoir has won the respectable Frederick Douglass Book Prize given by Yale University's Gilder Lehrman Center for its examination and analysis of slavery, resistance, and abolition. The documents which included letters to the other abolitionist, friends and family was collected, and consists of approximately one thousand documents. Over three hundred will be included in the published Papers, along with a numerous amount of others that was incorporated into the documents. "To this day, Harriet Jacobs is the only African-American woman held in slavery whose papers are known to exist" (4).

Work Cited:
5."AAWW Biographies." NYPL, Digital Collections. Web. 21 Oct. 2009. http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/writers_aa19/bio2.html.

1. "Harriet A. Jacobs (Harriet Ann), 1813-1897." Documenting the American South homepage. Web. 21 Oct. 2009. http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/bio.html

2."Harriet Jacobs." The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Web. 21 Oct. 2009. http://www.unc.edu/~ptracy/HarrietJacobsPage.htm.

3."Harriet Jacobs: Selected Writings and Correspondence." Yale University. Web. 21 Oct. 2009. http://www.yale.edu/glc/harriet/docs.htm.

4. Harriet Jacobs Papers Project. Web. 21 Oct. 2009. http://harrietjacobspapers.org/.