Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself : With Related Documents

Reader be assured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, strictly true. I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery; on the contrary, my descriptions fall far short of the facts. I have concealed the names of places, and given persons fictitious names. I had no motive for secrecy on my own account, but I deemed it kind and considerate towards others to pursue this course

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).

Foreword
Preface
          
PART ONE. INTRODUCTION: A New Voice for Freedom
    Jacobs’s Early Life
    What Really Happened?
    Other Dominant Themes
    The Power of the Pen    Pseudonyms of Key Figures in Incidents in the Life of a       Slave Girl, Written by Herself PART TWO: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written   by Herself. Edited by L. Maria Child PART THREE. RELATED DOCUMENTS
1. American Beacon, Advertisement for the Capture of Harriet       Jacobs, July 4, 1835
2. Lydia Maria Child, Charity Bowery, 1844
3. Harriet Jacobs, Letter to Amy Post, 1852?
4. Harriet Jacobs, Letter to Amy Post, April 4, 1853
5. Harriet Jacobs, Letter to Amy Post, March 1854
6. Harriet Jacobs, Letter to Amy Post, June 21, 1857
7. Lydia Maria Child, Letter to Harriet Jacobs, August 13, 1860
8. Weekly Anglo-African, Review of Incidents in the Life of a       Slave Girl, April 13, 1861
9. John S. Jacobs, A True Tale of Slavery, 186110. Harriet Jacobs, Life Among the Contrabands, 1862
11. Harriet Jacobs, Letter to Ednah Dow Cheney, April 25, 1867 Appendixes
    A Harriet Jacobs Chronology (1813-1897)
    Questions for Consideration       
    Selected Bibliography 
Index