Audio Book, Harriet Jacobs ~Survivor of Slavery, Abolitionist and Author

The Gist of Freedom www.BlackHistoryUniversity.com is pleased to present to you the audio book of Harriet Jacobs, an African American abolitionist! Mrs. Jacobs  became active in the antislavery movement, and at the urging of several female abolitionists, she wrote “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” which was published in 1860. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is a powerful depiction of the sexual abuse of female slaves. 

Harriet Jacobs would thwart repeated sexual advancements made by slavers for years, then escape to the North. She would later publish an account of her anguished life in her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Harriet had previously asked Norcom for permission to marry a free black man. Norcom had violently refused. Now Harriet had a plan to disrupt his fight for sexual conquest: She had become friends with a caring white man -- an unmarried lawyer. She would become sexually involved with this man, become pregnant, and an infuriated Norcom would sell her and her child. 

A child was conceived.  The harassment continued even after she bore the lawyer another child. Finally, after she learned that Norcom was preparing to put her children to work as plantation slaves, she had had enough. In June of 1835, after seven years of mistreatment, Harriet escaped.

Harriet was actively involved with the abolition movement before the launch of the Civil War. During the war she used her celebrity to raise money for black refugees. After the war she worked to improve the conditions of the recently-freed slaves.