1813-1897

Ruth Fitz, a black teenager surrounded by activism in a family rocked by tragedy, discovers that she has begun to receive parchment letters from Harriet Jacobs, the author of the autobiography and 1861 American classic, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and sets out to use her own voice to make history.

The author describes her experiences as a slave in North Carolina, her eventual escape, and emancipation, including descriptions of the seven years she spent hiding in a crawl space above her grandmother's attic.

The slave narrative of Harriet A. Jacobs, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, in which she describes the trials of her life as a Southern slave, and discusses her determination to win freedom for herself and her children.

The author describes her experiences as a slave in North Carolina, her eventual escape, and emancipation, including descriptions of the seven years she spent hiding in a crawl space above her grandmother's attic.

Presents the slave narrative of Harriet A. Jacobs, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, and includes commentary about the people and places discussed by the author, as well as photographs and a selection of letters.

A fictionalized version of the life of Harriet Jacobs, told in the form of letters that she might have written during her slavery in North Carolina and as she prepared for escape to the North in 1842.

An examination of slavery in American literature, discussing the works of Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others.

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.

Presents the slave narrative of Harriet A. Jacobs, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, in which she describes the trials of her life as a Southern slave, and discusses her determination to win freedom for herself and her children.