Harriet Jacobs was born in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813. She was born as a slave and this is her life story. Harriet's mother Delila was a slave as well. Her owner was John Horniblow. Harriet's mother died when she was six. Harriet had to be raised by her grandmother. In 1825 Harriet was sold to James Norcom. He abused poor Harriet. With many warnings from the law Mr. Norcom continued his harassing and forbid Harriet to love anyone other than him. He threatened to sell her children to a slave dealer. In 1834 Harriet escaped to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Later on she moved to New York and found a job. She began to write about the things that had happened in her life. Horace Greeley published some of it in his newspaper, New York Tribune. In 1861 it was published in Boston as Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Incidents was important because it told about the many ways slaves were abused. Harriet worked as a nurse in Virginia during the Civil War. She helped establish the National Association of Colored Women and The Jacobs Free School. Harriet Jacobs was 84 when she died on March 7, 1897 and is buried in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

image from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/JACOBS/hjhome.htm 

2000, by Arielle, third grade