Harriet Jacobs

Meet abolitionist and writer Harriet Jacobs in this third vibrant middle grade biography in the Rise. Risk. Remember. Incredible Stories series spotlighting Black women who left their mark on history from acclaimed and New York Times bestselling author Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Candace Buford.

Harriet Jacobs (1815–1897) was born into slavery and hid herself and her children for seven years after enduring abuse at the hands of her enslaver and before finally escaping to the free north. During and immediately after the American Civil War, she travelled to Union-occupied parts of the South and, with her daughter, founded two schools for fugitive and freed slaves. Her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861 under a pseudonym, is now considered an American classic.