Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in the American South in 1813 and went on to write the story of her life, which was published pseudonymously, in 1861. Hers was the first narrative published by a female slave. She describes her treatment at the hands of her owners, her eventual escape to the North, and her perilous existence trying to evade recapture. To save herself, before her flight to the North, she is forced to hide for seven years in a tiny attic space, enduring psychological and physical pain. Jacobs' story of self-emancipation, and her growing feminist consciousness, is both the tale of an individual and a searing indictment of slavery's inhumanity.
