How Harriet Ann Jacobs Changed the World
What My Literary Heroes Taught Me about Writing
by Rochelle Melander
When it comes to changing history, sometimes you must write your stories for the people least likely to embrace them. Harriet Ann Jacobs wrote her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, to appeal to white women in the North, teaching readers how enslavers took advantage of their power and abused the enslaved people in multiple ways. Harriet wrote, “I want to add my testimony to that of abler pens to convince the people of the Free States what slavery really is. Only by experience can any one realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that pit of abominations.”
Harriet began life with a relatively kind mistress who taught her to read, write, and sew. Before she died, Margaret Horniblow willed eleven-year-old Harriet to a niece, Mary Matilda Norcom. In the Norcom house, Harriet Ann Jacobs was sexually harassed and physically abused by Mary’s father, Dr. Norcom.
Seeking independence, Harriet Ann Jacobs began a relationship with Samuel Tredwell Sawyer, a white attorney. With him, she had two children, Joseph and Louisa. Hoping to encourage Norcom to sell her children to their father, she pretended to run away, hiding in her grandmother’s attic for seven years.
After Sawyer was elected to the United States House of Representatives, he moved to Washington, DC. He broke his promise to free her children. Instead, he sent their daughter to Brooklyn to work as a house servant. Jacobs escaped, running to New York to be reunited with her daughter.
For ten years after escaping her enslaver, Harriet Ann Jacobs lived as a fugitive. Jacobs found her daughter and resettled her two children with her in Boston. There, she found work as a nursemaid for the baby daughter of Mary Stace Willis, wife of the poet Nathanael Parker Willis.
It wasn’t until she was freed that she was able to write her story. She began by taking small steps, writing anonymous letters to the New York Tribune about her experience as an enslaved woman. In the first, “Letter from a Fugitive Slave: Slaves Sold under Peculiar Circumstances” (June 21, 1853), Jacobs wrote about how enslaved women were sexually abused.
But as a working woman, Harriet Ann Jacobs didn’t always have the time to write. In a letter to abolitionist Amy Post in March 1854, she said, “You saw from my daily duties that it was hard for me to find much time to write as yet I have not written a single page by daylight Mrs W dont know from my lips that I am writing for a Book and has never seen a line of what I have written I told her in the Autumn that I would give her Louisa services through the winter if she would allow me my winter evenings to myself but with the care of the little baby and the big Babies and at the houshold calls I have but a little time to think or write but I have tried in my poor way to do my best and that is not much.“
In another letter to Amy Post a few years later (June 21, 1857), Jacobs writes about the delicate state of her writing using the image of a butterfly in its chrysalis: “Just now the poor Book is in its Chrysalis state and though I can never make it a butterfly I am satisfied to have it creep meekly among some of the humbler bugs I sometimes wish that I could fall into a Rip Van Winkle sleep and awake with the blest belief of that little Witch Topsy that I never was born but you will say it is too late in the day I have outgrown the belief oh yes and outlived it too but you know that my bump of hope is large.”
Jacobs did finish her book. After the publishing house slated to release her book went out of business, Jacobs published it herself under the name Linda Brent. By changing the names, she could tell the truth about what happened. Jacobs was the first Black woman to publish a slave narrative. She told the story no one else could tell—her own. Thanks to Jacobs, we have a distinct and detailed record of what it was like to be an enslaved woman in America.
Jacobs and her daughter founded the Jacobs Free School, a school for African Americans. Later, the two worked to raise money for former enslaved people.
Your turn: What story do you need to tell? Who needs to hear it? Learn from Harriet Ann Jacobs and start small: write a short letter to the editor (you don’t have to send it) about your experience.
For more help: On March 10, I am holding my class Writing to Reform, Rebel, and Revolutionize: Blog Your Book to Help People Thrive. In this workshop, we will consider how you can transform your frustration into blog posts or a newsletter that supports people in this difficult time. Later, you can collect it into a book
Write Now! Coach Rochelle Melander is an author and ADHD-trained professional certified coach. She’s helped hundreds of people write and publish books. If you’re struggling to start or finish a project, connect with Rochelle to create a personalized plan for overcoming procrastination, dealing with distraction, and staying focused. Book a private consultation: https://writenowcoach.com/consultation/
