Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the stirring autobiography of Harriet Jacobs, a mother and fugitive slave, detailing her harrowing escape from slavery and seven years hiding in an attic crawl space and the racism she faced in freedom. The Norton Library edition presents the text of the first (1861) edition, with explanatory endnotes and an introduction by Evie Shockley.

About the author

Harriet Jacobs was born in Edenton, North Carolina, in 1813, to slave parents. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the first full-length narrative written by a former slave woman in America, is a record of events and experiences of slavery seen through the eyes of the young Harriet during the years she lived in captivity in Edenton, through her escape, when she becomes a fugitive in the North at age twenty-nine, and concluding soon after a northern white friend buys her freedom in 1852.

Product details

• Authors: Harriet Jacobs, Jacobs Harriet
• Assisted by: Evie Shockley (Editor), Evie (Rutgers University) Shockley (Editor)
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 29.10.2025
• EAN: 9780393870787
• ISBN: 978-0-393-87078-7
• Dimensions: 127 mm x 196 mm x 15 mm
• Weight: 182 g
• Series: Norton Library (Paperback); The Norton Library
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Biographies, autobiographies; Memoirs, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs