Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the Autobiographical account of Harriet Jacobs published in 1861. This stunning look at the struggles and hardship of women under slavery and how they are so much worse than the men face. Pressured to have sex at a early age, rape, selling of their children and their mistreatment at the hands of their mistresses. "Northerners know nothing at all about Slavery. They think it is perpetual bondage only. They have no conception of the depth of degradation involved in that word, SLAVERY; if they had, they would never cease their efforts until so horrible a system was overthrown." This narrative contains some incidents so extraordinary, that, doubtless, many persons, under whose eyes it may chance to fall, will be ready to believe that it is colored highly, to serve a special purpose. But, however it may be regarded by the incredulous, I know that it is full of living truths. I have been well acquainted with the author from my boyhood. The circumstances recounted in her history are perfectly familiar to me. I knew of her treatment from her master; of the imprisonment of her children; of their sale and redemption; of her seven years' concealment; and of her subsequent escape to the North. I am now a resident of Boston, and am a living witness to the truth of this interesting narrative. George W. Lowther.