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German People's Union

2025-09-03T03:05:43Z

2603:8000:2F00:F1EC:D5BC:9CD3:5135:4C03: /* History */

{{Short description|Nationalist political party in Germany}}
{{expand German|topic=hist|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox political party
| country = Germany
| name = German People's Union
| native_name = ''Deutsche Volksunion''
| logo = DVU Parteilogo.svg
| logo_size = 130px
| colorcode = #CC0000
| leader = Matthias Faust
| foundation = {{start date and age|1971}}<ref>Party organized officially in 1987.</ref>
| dissolution = {{nowrap|{{end date and age|2011|01|1|df=yes}}}}
| split = [[National Democratic Party of Germany|National Democratic Party]]
| merged = National Democratic Party
| ideology = {{Nowrap|[[German nationalism]] [[Pan-Germanism]] [[National conservatism]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Strategies for Combating Right-wing Extremism in Europe|first=Bertelsmann|last=Stiftung|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|page=183|year=2009}}</ref> [[Right-wing populism]] [[Xenophobia]]<ref name=PPW>{{cite book |last= Bogdan |first= J Szajkowski |date= 2005 |title= Political Parties of the World |url= https://archive.org/details/politicalparties0000unse_c5d1/mode/2up |publisher= John Harper Publishing |page= 253 |isbn= 978-0-9543811-4-1 |access-date= 2025-02-24 |quote= The extreme right-wing DVU claims not to be a neo-fascist party but has been prominent in anti-foreigner and anti-immi-gration agitation, contending that the majority of Germans want a "racially pure" country.}}</ref> [[Anti-immigration]]<ref name=PPW />}}
| position = [[Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present)|Far-right]]<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1473969/German-far-Right-groups-to-merge-after-poll-victories.html German far-Right groups to 'merge' after poll victories]. The Telegraph. Author - Kate Connolly. Published 12 October 2004. Retrieved 9 September 2017.</ref><ref>Lewis, Rand C.: [https://books.google.com/books?id=X7Ff9wcb8SkC&q=%22German+People%27s+Union%22+neo-nazi&pg=PA78 ''The Neo-Nazis and German Unification'']</ref><ref name=PPW />
| europarl =
| european =
| international =
| colours = {{color box|#000000|border=darkgray}} [[Black]] {{color box|#FF0000|border=darkgray}} [[Red]] {{color box|#FFCC00|border=darkgray}} [[Gold]] ([[German national colours]])
| headquarters = [[Munich]], Germany
}}
The '''German People's Union''' ({{langx|de|Deutsche Volksunion}}, '''DVU''', also ''Liste D'') was a [[Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present)|far-right]] [[nationalist]] political party in Germany. It was founded by publisher [[Gerhard Frey (politician)|Gerhard Frey]] as an informal association in 1971 and established as a party in 1987. In 2011, it merged with the [[National Democratic Party of Germany]] (NPD).

The party never reached the five-percent minimum in [[Elections in Germany|federal elections]] that is generally necessary to enter the [[Bundestag]]. The DVU won seats in several state parliaments.

The party, throughout its history, was financially completely dependent on Frey, something that caused it to be dubbed "Frey's Party".

==History==
The DVU was formed as an association, not a party, by Gerhard Frey and twelve others,{{sfn|Mudde|2002|p=60}} former members of other right-wing organisations or conservative parties as well as from various groups in the [[Federation of Expellees]].{{sfn|Mudde|2002|p=61}} In the early years, before the organisation became a party in 1987, it was predominantly active in propagating [[Holocaust denial|negationist views about the Holocaust]] and Germany's role in [[World War II]], predominately through Frey's media empire and his ''[[National Zeitung]].<ref name="Mitteldeutscher" >{{cite news|date=5 January 2016|title=Die Deutsche Volksunion|trans-title=The German People's Union|url=https://www.mdr.de/heute-im-osten/projekte/rechtsextremismus/rechtsextremismus168.html|language=de|work=[[Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk]]|access-date=27 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127151910/https://www.mdr.de/heute-im-osten/projekte/rechtsextremismus/rechtsextremismus168.html|archive-date=27 November 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

With the decline of the [[Far-right politics|far-right]] [[National Democratic Party of Germany]], the NPD, from 1969 onward, the German People's Union became a new home for many former supporters of this party. The DVU, however, stayed away from party politics and instead organised protest marches against the German government's ''[[Ostpolitik]]'', the rapprochement with Poland and Eastern Europe. It formed a number of action committees:<ref name="Mitteldeutscher"/>
*''Volksbewegung für Generalamnestie'' (1979) – People's Movement for General Amnesty
*''Initiative für Ausländerbegrenzung'' (1980) – Initiative for the limitation of foreigners
*''Aktion deutsches Radio und Fernsehen'' (1981) – German action for radio and television
*''Ehrenbund Rudel - Gemeinschaft zum Schutz der Frontsoldaten'' (1983) – Honour federation Rudel – Community for the protection of the front soldiers (named after [[Hans-Ulrich Rudel]] and established during a memorial service after the latter's death)<ref>{{cite web |title=Gedenkveranstaltung für Hans Ulrich Rudel, 1983|trans-title=Memorial service for Hans Ulrich Rudel, 1983|url=https://www.sz-photo.de/?16607724099100603390&EVENT=POPUP&WINDOW=WGWINe4704873e01b6fac8cb1c19fdf7143a9&AJXUID=0.7987179042092476&MEDIANUMBER=00325558&MEDIAITEMS=667e82876af943c49f10de114a6d270cc7811f83&OMG=fde34952c756&PAGING_SCOPE_4=29&MEDIAGROUP_SCOPE=1|language=de|work=[[Sueddeutsche Zeitung]]|access-date=28 November 2018 }}</ref>
*''Deutschen Schutzbund für Volk und Kultur'' – German Protective Association for People and Culture
*''Aktion Oder-Neiße'' - Action Oder-Neisse
[[File:Bundestagswahl 1998 DVU.svg|thumb|right|DVU support in the [[1998 German federal election]]]]
Membership in the DVU fluctuated in the following years but stood at 12,000 by 1986, making it the largest registered far-right organisation in Germany at the time.{{sfn|Mudde|2002|p=61}} On 5 March 1987, the association became a party with the help of a large number of former NPD officials, something Frey had started planning the year before. Initially the party was called ''Deutsche Volksliste'', which soon changed to ''Deutsche Volksunion-Liste D'' and, in 1991, just ''Deutsche Volksunion''.<ref name="Mitteldeutscher" />{{sfn|Mudde|2002|p=62}}

Frey's official reason for forming a party at the time was his disappointment with the German conservative-liberal Federal Government in regards to foreigners, security and policy towards East Germany. The new party formed an alliance with the NPD, generally agreeing not to compete with each other in elections. The DVU was financially well-off, courtesy of Frey's personal wealth, but lacked election expertise, while the NPD had the latter but was financially weak.{{sfn|Mudde|2002|p=62}}

In September 1987, the DVU became the first far-right party in Germany in 20 years to win a seat in a state parliament when it entered the [[Bürgerschaft of Bremen|Parliament of Bremen]], courtesy to winning 5.4 percent of the votes in [[Bremerhaven]]. Despite missing the five percent cut off in Bremen overall, gaining only 3.41 percent of the vote in the city-state, the special provisions in Bremen allowed for a party to enter parliament if it passed the five percent mark in one of the two parts of the state.<ref name="Mitteldeutscher" /> Frey had spent more money on the Bremen campaign than the major party in the state combined and benefited from targeting protest voters.{{sfn|Mudde|2002|p=62}}

Karl Heinz Sendbühler, a high-ranking member of the NPD, stated in 1989 that, with Frey's money, the charisma of [[Franz Schönhuber]], leader of [[The Republicans (Germany)|The Republicans]] at the time, and the NPD organisation, no German parliament would be safe from such an alliance. However, the personal dislike between Schönhuber and Frey made such an alliance impossible, with Frey accusing Schönhuber of being in league with the German conservatives while the latter called Frey a trader of [[devotional articles]].<ref>{{cite news |date=29 May 1989|title="Seine Raffgier ist umfassend"|trans-title=His greed is all encompassing|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13496051.html|language=de |work=[[Der Spiegel]]|access-date=27 November 2018 }}</ref>
[[File:European Parliament election 2009 votes DVU.svg|thumb|right|DVU support in the [[2009 European Parliament election in Germany]]]]
Frey continued to spend heavily on elections, investing [[Deutsche mark|DM]] 17 million on the [[1989 European Parliament election in West Germany|1989 European Parliament election]], but winning only 1.6 percent of the votes in Germany, compared to 7.1 percent for their right-wing competitors, The Republicans (REP). Despite this financial and political defeat, the DVU expanded its membership to 25,000 by 1989,{{sfn|Mudde|2002|p=62}} and won six seats in the Parliament of Bremen in 1991, becoming the third-largest party there. In the following year it won 6.3 percent in the state elections in [[Schleswig-Holstein]] but failed to win seats in the [[Hamburg]] state election in September 1993, where competition between the DVU and REP kept both out of parliament.{{sfn|Mudde|2002|p=63}}

By 1994, the DVU was in a financially difficult situation while also experiencing a breakdown of relations with the NPD. A short-term alliance with the REP did not last and it was unable to compete in elections for a time. The DVU membership declined and it lost its seats in the Bremen election of 1995, despite spending DM 2 million on the campaign. After losing its seats in Schleswig-Holstein the following year it achieved a better result in Hamburg in 1997, gaining 4,97 percent of the votes, just 190 votes short of earning seats in the state parliament.{{sfn|Mudde|2002|p=63}}

Frey attempted to form alliances with the other two major far-right and right-wing parties in Germany but was rebuffed by the REP as being too extremist and by the NPD as being too moderate and business-orientated.{{sfn|Mudde|2002|p=63}} In 1998 the DVU achieved its greatest election success, winning 12.8 percent, 16 seats, in Saxony-Anhalt, and a quarter of all votes of the young voters aged 18 to 25. However, by the following year, the DVU fraction was split by infighting and a number of the party's members of parliament left the DVU.<ref name="Mitteldeutscher" />

The final years of the party saw it lose a substantial number of members and the aging of the remainder.<ref name="Mitteldeutscher" /> By the time of its merger with the NPD in 2010 the party had just 3,000 members, half the number the NPD had.<ref name="Tagesspiegel" />

In 2004, the DVU entered a non-competition agreement with the NPD for the state elections in [[Brandenburg]] and [[Saxony]]. Both parties passed the five-percent threshold in their respective states. The DVU reached 6.1 percent in the [[2004 Brandenburg state election|Brandenburg state elections]], and the NPD won 9.2 percent in the [[2004 Saxony state election|Saxony state elections]]. After this relatively successful election, the parties formed an [[electoral alliance]] for the [[2005 German federal election|2005 federal elections]]. The joint NPD-DVU slate, which ran under the NPD's ballot line, won 1.6 percent of the total votes nationally.

In 2009, party founder Frey did not run for reelection as chairman and was replaced by [[Matthias Faust]]. In 2010, a referendum of party members approved a merger of the DVU and the NPD.<ref>{{cite news | url= http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,727700,00.html|title=NPD beschließt Fusion mit der DVU|newspaper=Der Spiegel |date=6 November 2010 }}</ref> Several state sections of the DVU objected to the merger and achieved a [[preliminary injunction]] from the [[Landgericht (Germany)|Landgericht]] Munich based on irregularities during the referendum.<ref name="Tagesspiegel" >{{cite news |date=27 January 2011|title=Fusion von NPD und DVU ist unwirksam|trans-title=Merger of NPD and DVU is invalid|url=https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/rechtsextreme-parteien-fusion-von-npd-und-dvu-ist-unwirksam/3773068.html|language=de |work=[[Der Tagesspiegel]]|access-date=27 November 2018 }}</ref> On May 26, 2012, these objections were withdrawn and the DVU was declared defunct. Several branches and individuals objected to the perceived links between the NPD and [[Nazism]] and instead joined with the smaller party [[The Republicans (Germany)|the Republicans]], who were considered more moderate. This was especially true in North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria, where the Republicans were traditionally strongest. Some other individuals formed a new party called [[Die Rechte]] (meaning "the Right").

==Assessment==
The party was, from the start, under observation by the German [[Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution]],<ref name="Freydead">{{cite news |date=23 February 2013 |title=DVU-Gründer Frey gestorben |language=de |trans-title=DVU founder Frey died |work=[[Die Zeit]] |url=https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2013-02/dvu-frey |access-date=27 November 2018}}</ref> who declared the party's policies to be in violation of the German constitution.<ref name="Spiegelfrey" >{{cite news |date=23 February 2013|title=Gerhard Frey ist tot|trans-title=Gerhard Frey is dead|url=http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/dvu-gruender-gerhard-frey-ist-tot-a-885170.html|language=de |work=[[Der Spiegel]]|access-date=27 November 2018 }}</ref> The DVU was classified as xenophobic, nationalistic, historical revisionist and as a protest party against the alleged failure of the mainstream political parties.<ref name="Bdp" >{{cite web |title=Deutsche Volksunion (DVU)|url=http://www.bpb.de/politik/grundfragen/parteien-in-deutschland/208456/in-der-vergangenheit-praegende-parteien?p=8|language=de |work=[[Federal Agency for Civic Education]]|access-date=27 November 2018 }}</ref>

DVU candidates in state elections rarely made appearances, remaining in the background.<ref name="Spiegelfrey" /> Instead of election rallies, the party invested in posters and flyers, targeting [[protest vote]]rs.<ref>{{cite news |date=4 May 1998|title=Front der Frustrierten|trans-title=Front of the frustrated|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-7881888.html|language=de |work=[[Der Spiegel]]|access-date=27 November 2018 }}</ref> Candidates for state elections were hand-picked by Frey after private interviews, and not elected by the party.<ref>{{cite news |date=7 June 1999|title=Angriff der Phantompartei|trans-title=Attack of the phantom party|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13666831.html|language=de |work=[[Der Spiegel]]|access-date=27 November 2018 }}</ref>

Because of Frey's authoritarian leadership, the DVU was often dubbed the "Frey Party" and its financial dependence on Frey ensured that independent party activities were impossible.<ref>{{cite news |date=12 January 2009|title="Frey-Partei" ohne Frey|trans-title="Frey Party" without Frey|url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/dvu-frey-partei-ohne-frey-1757636.html|language=de |work=[[Frankfurter Allgemeine]]|access-date=27 November 2018 }}</ref> DVU fractions in state parliaments soon fractured because of Frey's overreaching control and the party soon folded after Frey stepped down in 2009.<ref name="Bdp" /> ''[[The Irish Times]]'', after the party's success in the 1998 Saxony-Anhalt state elections, described the DVU as "less a political party than the dangerous plaything of a millionaire", without any real party structure. At the time, Frey's personal fortune was estimated to be in excess of DM 500 million.<ref>{{cite news |date=28 April 1998|title=Far-right party little more than one wealthy fanatic's toy|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/far-right-party-little-more-than-one-wealthy-fanatic-s-toy-1.146911|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]|access-date=28 November 2018 }}</ref>

==Election results==
===Federal Parliament (''Bundestag'')===
{|class="wikitable" style="font-size:97%; text-align:right;"
|-
! rowspan=2| Election
! colspan=2| Party list
! rowspan=2| Seats
! rowspan=2| +/–
! rowspan=2| Status
|-
! Votes
! %
|-
! [[1998 German federal election|1998]]
| 601,192
| 1.22
| {{Composition bar|0|631}}
| ''New''
| align=center style="background:#ddd;"| {{nowrap|Extra-parliamentary}}
|-
! [[2009 German federal election|2009]]
| 45,752
| 0.11
| {{Composition bar|0|631}}
| ''New''
| align=center style="background:#ddd;"| {{nowrap|Extra-parliamentary}}
|}

===European Parliament===
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
! Election
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/–
! EP Group
|-
! [[1989 European Parliament election in West Germany|1989]]
| 444,921
| 1.58 (#6)
| {{Composition bar|0|99|{{party color|National Democratic Party of Germany}}}}
| {{increase}}
| ''[[Non-Inscrits|NI]]''
|-
! [[2009 European Parliament election in Germany|2009]]
| 111,695
| 0.42 (#13)
| {{Composition bar|0|99|{{party color|National Democratic Party of Germany}}}}
| {{increase}}
| ''[[Non-Inscrits|NI]]''
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |first=Cas |last=Mudde |author-link=Cas Mudde|title=The Ideology of the Extreme Right|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spT-NgRm3f8C&pg=PA60|year=2002|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-6446-3|pages=60–79|chapter=3. Deutsche Volksunion}}

{{German far right}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Defunct political parties in Germany]]
[[Category:Far-right political parties in Germany]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1971]]
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 2011]]
[[Category:Right-wing populism in Germany]]
[[Category:German nationalist political parties]]
[[Category:Pan-Germanism]]
[[Category:1971 establishments in West Germany]]
[[Category:2011 disestablishments in Germany]]
[[Category:Euronat members]]
[[Category:Right-wing parties in Europe]]
[[Category:Defunct conservative parties]]
[[Category:Defunct nationalist parties]]
[[Category:National conservative parties]]
[[Category:Right-wing populist parties]]
[[Category:Conservative parties in Germany]]

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

2025-09-03T02:21:08Z

2603:8000:2F00:F1EC:D5BC:9CD3:5135:4C03: /* Biographical background */

{{Short description|1861 autobiography by Harriet Jacobs}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
| image = IncidentsInTheLifeOfASlaveGirl.jpg
| caption = Frontispiece of the first edition
| author = [[Harriet Jacobs]]
| title_orig =
| translator =
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| series =
| subject =
| genre = [[Slave narrative]]
| publisher = [[Thayer & Eldridge]]
| pub_date = 1861
| orig_lang_code = en
| set_in =[[North Carolina]] and [[New York City]], 1813–1842
| english_pub_date =
| media_type = Print: hardback
| pages =
| isbn =
| oclc =
| dewey = 305.567092
| congress = E444.J17 A3
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
| wikisource = Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
}}
'''''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself''''' is an autobiography by [[Harriet Jacobs]], a mother and fugitive slave, published in 1861 by [[Lydia Maria Child|L. Maria Child]], who edited the book for its author. Jacobs used the [[pseudonym]] Linda Brent. The book documents Jacobs' life as a slave and how she gained freedom for herself and for her children. Jacobs contributed to the genre of [[slave narrative]] by using the techniques of [[Sentimental novel|sentimental novels]] "to address race and gender issues."<ref name="patton">[https://books.google.com/books?id=BGSf-8E_QfoC&pg=PA53 Venetria K. Patton, ''Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women's Fiction''], Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 2000, pp. 53-55</ref> She explores the struggles and [[sexual abuse]] that female slaves faced as well as their efforts to practice motherhood and protect their children when their children might be sold away.

In the book, Jacobs addresses White [[Union (American Civil War)|Northern]] women who fail to comprehend the evils of slavery. She makes direct appeals to their humanity to expand their knowledge and influence their thoughts about slavery as an institution.

Jacobs composed ''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'' after her escape to [[New York (state)|New York]], while living and working at Idlewild, the home of writer and publisher [[Nathaniel Parker Willis]].<ref>Baker, Thomas N. ''Nathaniel Parker Willis and the Trials of Literary Fame''. New York, Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 4. {{ISBN|0-19-512073-6}}</ref>

==Historical context==
=== Biographical background ===
{{Main|Harriet Jacobs}}
[[File:Gilbert Studios photograph of Harriet Jacobs.jpg|thumb|[[Harriet Jacobs]], 1894<ref>[https://www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2019/07/harriet-jacobs-working-for-freedpeople-in-civil-war-alexandria/harriet-jacobs-portrait-copy/ Journal of the Civil War Era].</ref>]]
'''Harriet Jacobs''' was born into slavery in [[Edenton, North Carolina]] in 1813. When she was a child, her mistress taught her to read and write, skills that were extremely rare among slaves. At twelve years old, she fell into the hands of an abusive owner who harassed her sexually. When he threatened to sell her children, she hid in a tiny crawlspace under the roof of her grandmother's house. After staying there for seven years, spending much of her time reading the [[Bible]] and also newspapers,<ref>Jean Fagan Yellin: ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life.'' New York 2004, p. 50.</ref> she finally managed to escape to [[New York State|New York]] in 1842.

Her brother, [[John S. Jacobs]], who had also managed to escape from slavery, became more and more involved with the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]] led by [[William Lloyd Garrison]], going on several anti-slavery lecturing tours from 1847 onwards.<ref>Jean Fagan Yellin: ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life.'' New York 2004, p. 93.</ref> In 1849/50, Harriet Jacobs helped her brother running the ''Anti-Slavery Office and Reading Room'' in [[Rochester, New York]], being in close contact with abolitionists and feminists like [[Frederick Douglass]] and [[Amy and Isaac Post]]. During that time she had the opportunity to read abolitionist literature and become acquainted with anti-slavery theory. In her autobiography she describes the effects of this period in her life: "The more my mind had become enlightened, the more difficult it was for me to consider myself an article of property."<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself|at=p. 299|language=en|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac299|access-date=February 3, 2020
}} Yellin uses this sentence as headline and motto of chapter 7, which covers her time in Rochester. Jean Fagan Yellin: ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life.'' New York 2004, p. 101.</ref> Urged by her brother and by Amy Post, she started to write her autobiography in 1853, finishing the manuscript in 1858. During that time she was working as a nanny for the children of [[Nathaniel Parker Willis|N. P. Willis]]. Still, she didn't find a publisher until 1860, when [[Thayer & Eldridge]] agreed to publish her manuscript and initiated her contact with [[Lydia Maria Child]], who became the editor of the book, which was finally published in January 1861.

=== Abolitionist and African-American literature ===
When Jacobs started working on ''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'' in 1853, many works by abolitionist and African-American writers were already in print. In 1831 [[William Lloyd Garrison]] had started the publication of his weekly ''[[The Liberator (newspaper)|The Liberator]]''.

In 1845, [[Frederick Douglass]] had published his first autobiography, ''[[Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave|Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Written by Himself]]'', which became a [[bestseller]] and paved the way for subsequent [[slave narratives]].<ref name="Kendi183">Ibram X. Kendi, ''Stamped from the Beginning. The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America'', New York: Nation Books 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-5685-8464-5}}, pp. 183–184.</ref>

The White abolitionist [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] published ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' in 1852, artfully combining the genres of slave narratives and sentimental novels.<ref name="patton55">[https://books.google.com/books?id=BGSf-8E_QfoC&pg=PA53 Venetria K. Patton, ''Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women's Fiction''], Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 2000, p. 55.</ref> Although a work of fiction, Stowe based her novel on several accounts by eyewitnesses. However, the relationship between Black and White abolitionist writers was not without problems. Garrison supplied a preface to Douglass's ''Narrative'' that would later be analyzed as latently racist,<ref>By Black scholar I. X. Kendi, cf. Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning. The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, New York: Nation Books 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-5685-8464-5}}, p. 184.</ref> and the relationship between the two male abolitionists deteriorated when Garrison was less than supportive to the idea of Douglass starting his own newspaper.<ref>David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass. Prophet of Freedom. New York 2018, p. 188.</ref> That Stowe's book became an instant bestseller was in part due to the fact that she shared her readers' racist mindset, explicitly stating that Black people were intellectually inferior and modeling the character of her protagonist, Uncle Tom, accordingly.<ref>Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning. The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, New York: Nation Books 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-5685-8464-5}}.</ref> When Jacobs suggested to Stowe that Stowe transform her story into a book, Jacobs perceived Stowe's reaction as a racist insult, which she analyzed in a letter to her White friend Amy Post.<ref>Jean Fagan Yellin: ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life.'' New York 2004, pp. 119–121.</ref>

===Cult of True Womanhood===
In the antebellum period, the [[Cult of Domesticity|Cult of True Womanhood]] was prevalent among upper and middle-class White women. This set of ideals, as described by Barbara Welter, asserted that all women possessed (or should possess) the virtues of piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness.<ref>Welter, Barbara. "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860," ''American Quarterly'' 18. (1966): 151-74.</ref> Venetria K. Patton explains that Jacobs and [[Harriet E. Wilson]], who wrote ''[[Our Nig]]'', reconfigured the genres of slave narrative and sentimental novel, claiming the titles of "woman and mother" for Black females, and suggesting that society's definition of womanhood was too narrow.<ref name="patton"/> They argued and "remodeled" Stowe's descriptions of Black maternity.<ref>Patton (2000), ''Women in Chains'', p. 39</ref>

They also showed that the institution of slavery made it impossible for African-American women to control their virtue, as they were subject to the social and economic power of men.<ref>Larson, Jennifer. "Converting Passive Womanhood to Active Sisterhood: Agency, Power, and Subversion in Harriet Jacobs' 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl’," ''Women's Studies'' 35.8 (2006): 739-756. Web. October 29, 2014</ref> Jacobs showed that enslaved women had a different experience of motherhood but had strong feelings as mothers despite the constraints of their position.<ref>Patton (2000), ''Women in Chains'', p. 37</ref>

Jacobs was clearly aware of the womanly virtues, as she referred to them as a means to appeal to female abolitionists to spur them into action to help protect enslaved Black women and their children. In the narrative, she explains life events that prevent Linda Brent from practicing these values, although she wants to. For example, as she cannot have a home of her own for her family, she cannot practice domestic virtues.

{{Slavery}}

==Character list==
'''Linda Brent''' is [[Harriet Jacobs]], the narrator and protagonist.

'''Aunt Martha''' is Molly Horniblow, Linda's maternal grandmother. After briefly talking of her earliest childhood, her parents and her brother, Jacobs begins her book with the history of her grandmother. At the end of the book, Jacobs relates the death of her grandmother in 1853, soon after Jacobs had obtained her legal freedom, using the very last sentence to mention the "tender memories of my good old grandmother." Molly Horniblow obtained her freedom in 1828, when Jacobs was about 15 years old, because friends of hers bought her with the money she had earned by working at night.

'''Benjamin''' is Joseph Horniblow, Aunt Martha's youngest child and Linda's uncle. Chapter 4, ''The Slave Who Dared to Feel like a Man'', is largely dedicated to his story: Being only a few years older than Linda, "he seemed more like my brother than my uncle".<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself|at=p. 13|language=en|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac13|access-date=March 31, 2020
}}</ref> Linda and Benjamin share the longing for freedom. When his master attempts to whip him, he throws him to the ground and then runs away to avoid the punishment of a public whipping. He is caught, paraded in chains through Edenton, and put into jail. Although his mother entreats him to ask forgiveness of his master, he proudly refuses and is finally sold to New Orleans. Later, his brother Mark (called ''Philipp'' in the book), unexpectedly meets him in New York, learning that he has escaped again, but is in a very poor physical condition and without support. After that meeting, the family never heard from him again. Linda and her brother see him as a hero. Both of them would later name their son for him.<ref>Jean Fagan Yellin: ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life.'' New York 2004, pp. 20-21.</ref>

'''William''' is [[John S. Jacobs]], Linda's brother, to whom she is close.

'''Benny''' is Joseph Jacobs, Linda's son.

'''Ellen''' is [[Louisa Matilda Jacobs]], Linda's daughter.

'''Dr. Flint''' is Dr. James Norcom, Linda's master and tormentor. J. F. Yellin, after researching his surviving private letters and notes, writes about his personality: "Norcom was a loving and dominating husband and father. In his serious and sophisticated interest in medicine, his commitment as a physician, and his educated discourse, he appears unlike the villain Jacobs portrays. But his humorlessness, his egoism, his insistently controlling relationships with his wife and children ... suggest the portrait Jacobs draws. This impression is supported by ... his unforgiving fury against those he viewed as enemies. It is underscored by his admitted passionate responses to women."<ref>H.Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. J.F.Yellin, Cambridge 2000. Note 2 to p. 83 on p. 295.</ref>

'''Mrs. Flint''' is Mary "Maria" Norcom, Linda's mistress and Dr. Flint's wife.

'''Emily Flint''' is Mary Matilda Norcom, Dr. Flint's daughter and Linda's legal owner.

'''Mr. Sands''' is [[Samuel Tredwell Sawyer]], Linda's White sexual partner and the father of her children, Benny and Ellen.

'''Mr. Bruce''' is [[Nathaniel Parker Willis]].

'''The second Mrs. Bruce''' is Cornelia Grinnel Willis.

== Overview ==
{{SeeAlso|Harriet Jacobs}}
Chapters 1 and 2 describe the narrator's childhood and the story of her grandmother until she got her freedom. The narrator's story is then continued in chapters 4 to 7, which tell of the longing for freedom she shares with her uncle Benjamin and her brother William, Benjamin's escape, the sexual harassment by Dr. Flint, the jealousy of his wife, and the lover who she is forbidden to marry. Chapters 10 and 11 tell of her affair with Mr. Sands and the birth of her first child. Chapters 14 to 21 tell of the birth of her second child, her removal from the town to Flint's plantation, her flight and her concealment in her grandmother's [[garret]]. The nearly seven years she had to spend in that narrow place are described in chapters 22 to 28, the last chapters of which concentrate on the fate of family members during that time: the escape of her brother William (chapter 26), the plans made for the children (27), and the cruel treatment and death of her aunt Nancy (28). Her dramatic escape to Philadelphia is the subject of chapters 29 and 30. Chapters 31 to 36 describe her short stay in Philadelphia, her reunion with the children, her new work as nanny for the Bruce family, and her flight to Boston when she is threatened with recapture by Flint. Chapter 35 focusses on her experiences with northern racism. Her journey to England with Mr. Bruce and his baby Mary is the subject of chapter 37. Finally, chapters 38 to 41 deal with renewed threats of recapture, which are made much more serious by the Fugitive Slave Law, the "confession" of her affair with Mr. Sands to her daughter, her stay with [[Isaac and Amy Post]] in Rochester, the final attempt of her legal owner to capture her, the obtaining of her legal freedom, and the death of her grandmother.

The other chapters are dedicated to special subjects: Chapter 3 describes the hiring out and selling of slaves on New Year's Day, chapter 8 is called "What Slaves Are Taught to Think of the North", chapter 9 gives various examples of cruel treatment of slaves, chapter 12 describes the narrator's experience of the anti-Black violence in the wake of [[Nat Turner's slave rebellion|Nat Turner's Rebellion]], and chapter 13 is called "The Church And Slavery".
== Publication history ==
=== Early publication attempts ===
In May 1858, Harriet Jacobs sailed to England, hoping to find a publisher there. She carried good letters of introduction, but wasn't able to get her manuscript into print. The reasons for her failure are not clear. Yellin supposes that her contacts among the British abolitionists feared that the story of her liaison with Sawyer would be too much for Victorian Britain's prudery. Disheartened, Jacobs returned to her work at Idlewild and made no further efforts to publish her book until the fall of 1859.<ref>[[#CITEREFYellin, Life|Yellin, ''Life'']] 136–140</ref>

On October 16, 1859, the anti-slavery activist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] tried to incite a slave rebellion at [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry|Harper's Ferry]]. Brown, who was executed in December, was considered a martyr and hero by many abolitionists, among them Harriet Jacobs, who added a tribute to Brown as the final chapter to her manuscript. She then sent the manuscript to publishers [[Moses Dresser Phillips|Phillips and Sampson]] in Boston. They were ready to publish it under the condition that either Nathaniel Parker Willis or Harriet Beecher Stowe would supply a preface. Jacobs was unwilling to ask Willis, who held pro-slavery views, but she asked Stowe, who declined. Soon after, the publishers failed, thus frustrating Jacobs's second attempt to get her story printed.<ref>[[#CITEREFYellin, Life|Yellin, ''Life'']] 140</ref>

=== Lydia Maria Child as the book's editor ===
Jacobs now contacted [[Thayer and Eldridge]], who had recently published a sympathizing biography of [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]].<ref>The Public Life of Capt. John Brown by James Redpath.</ref> Thayer and Eldridge demanded a preface by [[Lydia Maria Child]]. Jacobs confessed to Amy Post, that after suffering another rejection from Stowe, she could hardly bring herself to asking another famous writer, but she "resolved to make my last effort".<ref>Jacobs to Post, October 8, 1860, cf. [[#CITEREFYellin, Life|Yellin, ''Life'']] 140 and note on p. 314</ref>

Jacobs met Child in [[Boston]], and Child not only agreed to write a preface but also to become the editor of the book. Child then re-arranged the material according to a more chronological order. She also suggested dropping the final chapter on Brown and adding more information on the anti-black violence which occurred in [[Edenton, North Carolina|Edenton]] after [[Nat Turner's slave rebellion|Nat Turner's 1831 rebellion]]. She kept contact with Jacobs via mail, but the two women failed to meet a second time during the editing process, because with Cornelia Willis passing through a dangerous pregnancy and [[premature birth]] Jacobs was not able to leave Idlewild.<ref>[[#CITEREFYellin, Life|Yellin, ''Life'']] 140–142</ref>

After the book had been [[Stereotype (printing)|stereotyped]], Thayer and Eldridge, too, failed. Jacobs succeeded in buying the stereotype plates and to get the book printed and bound.<ref>[[#CITEREFYellin, Life|Yellin, ''Life'']] 142–143</ref>

In January 1861, nearly four years after she had finished the manuscript, Jacobs's ''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'' finally appeared before the public. The next month, her brother John S. published his own, much shorter memoir, entitled ''A True Tale of Slavery'', in [[London]]. Both siblings relate in their respective narratives their own experiences, experiences made together, and episodes in the life of the other sibling.

In her book, Harriet Jacobs doesn't mention the town or even the state, where she was held as a slave, and changes all personal names, given names as well as family names, with the only exception of the Post couple, whose names are given correctly. However, John Jacobs (called "William" in his sister's book) mentions Edenton as his birthplace and uses the correct given names but abbreviates most family names. So where Dr. Norcom is "Dr. Flint" in Harriet's book, he is "Dr. N–" in John's. An author's name is not given on the title page of Harriet Jacobs's book, but the "Preface by the author" is signed "Linda Brent" and the narrator is called by that name throughout the story.

== Themes ==
=== Resistance ===
A turning point in the youth of Frederick Douglass, according to his autobiographies, was the fight against his brutal master. In Jacobs's autobiography there are two slaves who dare to resist their masters physically, although such an act of resistance normally is punished most cruelly: Her uncle Joseph (called "Benjamin" in the book) throws his master to the ground when he attempts to whip him, and then runs away to avoid the punishment of a public whipping.<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself|at=p. 33|language=en|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac33|access-date=February 3, 2020
}}</ref> Her brother John (called "William") is still a boy, when the son of his master tries to bind and whip him. John puts up a fight and wins. Although the "young master" is hurt, John gets away with it.<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself|at=p. 30|language=en|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac30|access-date=February 3, 2020
}}</ref> Other slaves mentioned in the book, women as well as men, resist by running away, although some have to pay dearly for that. Jacobs's uncle Joseph is caught, paraded in chains through Edenton and put in jail, where his health suffers so much that he has to be sold for a very low price.<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself|at=p. 38|language=en|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac38|access-date=February 3, 2020
}}</ref> Jacobs also tells of another fugitive who is killed by the slave catchers.

While physical resistance is less of an option for enslaved women, they still have many ways of resisting. Molly Horniblow, Jacobs's beloved grandmother, should have been set free at the death of her owner in 1827. But Dr. Norcom, Jacobs's abusive master and the son-in-law and executor of the will of Molly Horniblow's owner, wants to cheat her out of her freedom, citing debts which have to be settled by selling the deceased's human property. Norcom tells the enslaved woman that he wants to sell her privately in order to save her the shame of being sold at public auction, but Molly Horniblow insists on suffering that very shame. The [[auction]] turns out according to Molly Horniblow's plans: A friend of hers offers the ridiculously low price of $50,<ref>According to the autobiography. According to the documentation of the sale the price was $52.25, Jean Fagan Yellin: ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life.'' New York 2004, p. 21.</ref> and nobody among the sympathizing White people of Edenton is willing to offer more. Soon after, Jacobs's grandmother is set free.

Both Harriet Jacobs and her brother John frustrate the threats of their master by simply choosing what was meant as a threat: When Dr. Norcom throws John into the jail, which regularly serves as the place to guard slaves that are to be sold, John sends a slave trader to his master telling him he wants to be sold.<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself|at=p. 95|language=en|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac95|access-date=February 3, 2020
}}</ref> When Norcom tells Harriet to choose between becoming his [[Concubinage|concubine]] and going to the [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantation]], she chooses the latter, knowing that plantation slaves are even worse off than town slaves.<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself|at=p. 129|language=en|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac129|access-date=February 3, 2020
}}</ref>

Harriet Jacobs also knows to fight back with words: On various occasions, she doesn't follow the pattern of submissive behavior that is expected of a slave, protesting when her master beats her and when he forbids her to marry the man she loves,<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself|at=p. 61|language=en|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac61|access-date=February 3, 2020
}}</ref> and even telling him that his demand of a sexual relationship is against the law of God.<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself|at=p. 115|language=en|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac115|access-date=February 3, 2020
}}</ref>

=== Pro-slavery propaganda and cruel reality ===
Jacobs's employer, N. P. Willis, was the founding editor of the ''[[Home Journal]]''. Some years before she started working on her book, he had published an anonymous<ref>It was signed "Viator" (Latin, "Traveller").</ref> story called "The Night Funeral of a Slave"<ref>A reprint (from De Bow's Review, February 1856) is available online at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/acg1336.1-20.002/242.</ref> about a Northerner who witnesses a funeral of an old slave which he interprets as a sign for the love between the master and his slaves. The story ends with the conclusion drawn by the northern narrator, "that the negroes of the south are the happiest and most contented people on the face of the earth". In 1849, that story was republished by Frederick Douglass, in order to criticize pro-slavery Northerners.<ref>Jean Fagan Yellin: ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life.'' New York 2004, p. 109</ref>

In her autobiography, Jacobs includes a chapter about the death and funeral of her aunt Betty (called "Nancy" in the book), commenting that "Northern travellers ... might have described this tribute of respect to the humble dead as ... a touching proof of the attachment between slaveholders and their servants",<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself |pages=222 |language=en |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac222 |access-date=September 19, 2019}}</ref> but adding that the slaves might have told that imaginative traveler "a different story": The funeral had not been paid for by aunt Betty's owner, but by her brother, Jacobs's uncle Mark (called "Philipp" in the book), and Jacobs herself could neither say farewell to her dying aunt nor attend the funeral, because she would have been immediately returned to her "tormentor". Jacobs also gives the reason for her aunt's childlessness and early death: Dr. and Mrs. Norcom did not allow her enough rest, but required her services by day and night. Venetria K. Patton describes the relationship between Mrs. Norcom and Aunt Betty as a "parasitic one",<ref name="patton61">[https://books.google.com/books?id=BGSf-8E_QfoC&pg=PA61 Venetria K. Patton, ''Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women's Fiction''], Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 2000, p. 61.</ref> because Mary Horniblow, who would later become Mrs. Norcom, and aunt Betty had been "foster-sisters",<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself |pages=220, 221 |language=en |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac220 |access-date=September 19, 2019}}</ref> both being nursed by Jacobs's grandmother who had to wean her own daughter Betty early in order to have enough milk for the child of her mistress by whom Betty would eventually be "slowly murdered".<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself |pages=220 |language=en |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac220 |access-date=September 19, 2019}}</ref>

=== Church and slavery ===
At some places, Jacobs describes religious slaves. Her grandmother teaches her grandchildren to accept their status as slaves as God's will,<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself |pages=28 |language=en |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac28 |access-date=September 19, 2019}}</ref> and her prayers are mentioned at several points of the story, including Jacobs's last farewell to her before boarding the ship to freedom, when the old woman prays fervently for a successful escape.<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself |pages=235–236 |language=en |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac235 |access-date=September 19, 2019}}</ref> While Jacobs enjoys an uneasy freedom living with her grandmother after her first pregnancy, an old enslaved man approaches her and asks her to teach him, so that he can read the Bible, stating "I only wants to read dis book, dat I may know how to live, den I hab no fear 'bout dying."<ref>When direct speech is used in the book, slaves sometimes use ''plantation dialect'', but the main characters like Linda Brent, her brother, and even her illiterate grandmother use standard English. {{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself |pages=111–113 |language=en |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac112 |access-date=September 19, 2019}}</ref> Jacobs also tells that during her stay in England in 1845/46 she found her way back to the religion of her upbringing: "Grace entered my heart, and I knelt at the communion table, I trust, in true humility of soul."<ref name="Jacobs278">{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself |pages=278 |language=en |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac278 |access-date=September 19, 2019}}</ref>

However, she is very critical regarding the religion of the slaveholders, stating "there is a great difference between Christianity and religion at the south."<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself |pages=115 |language=en |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac115 |access-date=March 6, 2020}}</ref> She describes "the contemptuous manner in which the communion [was] administered to colored people".<ref>{{citation|title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself |pages=115 |language=en |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html#jac115 |access-date=March 6, 2020}}. The description itself is given on p. 103-104.</ref> She also tells of a [[Cell_group#Methodism|Methodist class leader]], who in civil life is the town [[constable]], performing the "Christian office" – as Jacobs calls it in bitter irony – of whipping slaves for a fee of 50 cents. She also criticizes "the buying and selling of slaves, by professed ministers of the gospel."<ref name="Jacobs278" />

Jacobs's distinction between "Christianity and religion at the south" has a parallel in Frederick Douglass's ''Narrative'', where he distinguishes the "slaveholding religion" from "Christianity proper", between which he sees the "widest, possible difference", stating, "I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land."<ref>{{citation|title=Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass|pages=118 |language=en |url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass/douglass.html#douglass118 |access-date=March 6, 2020}}</ref>

== ''Incidents'' as a feminist book ==
According to Yellin, ''Incidents'' has a "radical feminist content."<ref>H.Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. J.F.Yellin, Cambridge 2000, p. vii.</ref> Yellin states that ''Incidents'' is linked to the then popular genre of the [[seduction novel]]. That genre, examples of which include ''[[Charlotte Temple]]'' (1791) and ''[[The Quadroons]]'', written in 1842 by M. Lydia Child, who would later become the editor of ''Incidents'', features the story of a virtuous, but helpless woman seduced by a man. Her failure to adhere to the standard of sexual behavior set by the "white patriarchy",<ref name="JacobsXXIII">H.Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. J.F.Yellin, Cambridge 2000, p. xxxiii.</ref> "inevitably" leads to her "self-destruction and death". Although Jacobs describes her sexual transgression (i.e. the liaison with Sawyer) in terms of guilt and sin, she also sees it as a "mistaken tactic in the struggle for freedom". Most important, the book does not end with self-destruction, but with liberty.<ref>H.Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. J.F.Yellin, Cambridge 2000, p. xxxii.</ref>

According to Yellin, "a central pattern in ''Incidents'' shows white women betraying allegiances of race and class to assert their stronger allegiance to the sisterhood of all women": When Jacobs goes into hiding, a White woman who is herself a slaveholder hides her in her own house for a month, and when she is threatened with recapture, her female employer's plan to rescue her involves entrusting her own baby to Jacobs.<ref>H.Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. J.F.Yellin, Cambridge 2000, p. xxxiv-xxxv.</ref>

Jacobs presents herself as struggling to build a home for herself and her children. "This endorsement of domestic values links ''Incidents'' to what has been called 'woman's fiction'",<ref name="JacobsXXIII" /> in which a heroine overcomes hardships by finding the necessary resources inside herself. But unlike "woman's fiction", ''Incidents'' is an attempt to move women to political action", thus stepping out of the domestic sphere at that time commonly held to be the proper sphere for women and joining the public sphere.<ref>H.Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. J.F.Yellin, Cambridge 2000, p. xxxiv.</ref>

Jacobs discusses "the painful personal subject" of her sexual history "in order to politicize it, to insist that the forbidden topic of sexual abuse of slave women be included in public discussions of the slavery question." In telling of her daughter's acceptance of her sexual history, she "shows black women overcoming the divisive sexual ideology of the white patriarchy".<ref>H.Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. J.F.Yellin, Cambridge 2000, p. xvi.</ref>

== Reception ==
=== 19th century ===
[[File:Incidents pirated british edition 1862.jpg|thumb|An 1862 [[pirated]] British edition, with an image on the cover of Harriet Jacobs hiding in the attic as a [[slave catcher]] confronts her grandmother.]]
The book was promoted via the abolitionist networks and was well received by the critics. Jacobs arranged for a publication in [[Great Britain]], which appeared in the first months of 1862, soon followed by a [[pirated]] edition.<ref>Jean Fagan Yellin: ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life.'' New York 2004, pp. 151-152.</ref> "''Incidents'' was immediately acknowledged as a contribution to Afro-American letters."<ref name="JacobsXXXI">H.Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. J.F.Yellin, Cambridge 2000, p. xxxi.</ref>

The publication did not cause contempt as Jacobs had feared. On the contrary, Jacobs gained respect. Although she had used a pseudonym, in abolitionist circles she was regularly introduced with words like "Mrs. Jacobs, the author of Linda", thereby conceding her the honorific "Mrs." which normally was reserved for married women.<ref>Jean Fagan Yellin: ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life.'' New York 2004, p. 161.</ref> The ''[[The Daily News (UK)|London Daily News]]'' wrote in 1862, that Linda Brent was a true "heroine", giving an example "of endurance and persistency in the struggle for liberty" and "moral rectitude".<ref>Jean Fagan Yellin: ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life.'' New York 2004, p. 152.</ref>

''Incidents'' "may well have influenced" ''[[Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted]]'', an 1892 novel by Black author [[Frances Ellen Watkins Harper]], "which in turn helped shape the writings of [[Zora Neale Hurston]] and other foremothers of black women writing today."<ref name="JacobsXXXI" />

Still, ''Incidents'' was not republished, and "by the twentieth century both Jacobs and her book were forgotten".<ref>H.Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Ed. J.F.Yellin, Cambridge 2000, p. xxvii.</ref>

=== 20th and 21st centuries ===
The new interest in women and minority issues that came with the [[Civil rights movement|American civil rights movement]] also led to the rediscovery of ''Incidents''. The first new editions began to appear at the end of the 1960s.<ref>E.g. the edition by Mnemosyne Pub. Co., Miami, 1969, see [https://lccn.loc.gov/71089402 Library of Congress Catalog].</ref>

Prior to [[Jean Fagan Yellin]]'s research in the 1980s, the accepted academic opinion, voiced by such historians as [[John Blassingame]], was that ''Incidents'' was a fictional novel written by [[Lydia Maria Child]]. However, Yellin found and used a variety of historical documents, including from the [[Amy Post]] papers at the University of Rochester, state and local historical societies, and the Horniblow and Norcom papers at the North Carolina state archives, to establish both that Harriet Jacobs was the true author of ''Incidents,'' and that the narrative was her autobiography, not a work of fiction. Her edition of ''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'' was published in 1987 with the endorsement of Professor [[John W. Blassingame|John Blassingame]].<ref>Jean Fagan Yellin, ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life''. New York 2004, pp. xv-xx; Yellin, Jean Fagan and others, eds., The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers, 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), p. xxiii.</ref>

In 2004, Yellin published an exhaustive biography (394 pages) entitled ''Harriet Jacobs: A Life''.

In a ''[[New York Times]]'' review of Yellin's 2004 biography, [[David S. Reynolds]] states that ''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'' "and ''Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave'' are commonly viewed as the two most important slave narratives."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/books/to-be-a-slave.html| title=To Be a Slave| work=the New York Times| author= David S. Reynolds| date= July 11, 2004 }}</ref>

In the "Acknowledgments" of his bestselling 2016 novel, ''[[The Underground Railroad (novel)|The Underground Railroad]]'', [[Colson Whitehead]] mentions Jacobs: "Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, obviously." The heroine of the novel, Cora, has to hide in a place in the attic of a house in Jacobs's native North Carolina, where like Jacobs she is not able to stand, but like her can observe the outside life through a hole that "had been carved from the inside, the work of a previous occupant" (p. 185).<ref>The parallel has been observed by Martin Ebel in a review for the Swiss ''[[Tages-Anzeiger]]'', [https://desktop.12app.ch/articles/26540571 ''Wie Sklaven ihrem Schicksal entkamen.''] (in German).</ref>

In 2017 Jacobs was the subject of an episode of the [[Futility Closet Podcast]], where her experience living in a crawlspace was compared with the wartime experience of [[Patrick Fowler]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.futilitycloset.com/2017/01/23/podcast-episode-138-life-cupboard/|title=Futility Closet 138: Life in a Cupboard|date=January 23, 2017 }}</ref>

According to a 2017 article in ''[[Forbes]]'' magazine, a 2013 translation of ''Incidents'' by Yuki Horikoshi became a bestseller in Japan.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/adelsteinjake/2017/11/15/why-a-19th-century-american-slave-memoir-is-becoming-a-bestseller-in-japans-bookstores/#34a77d0c55ef |title=Why A 19th Century American Slave Memoir Is Becoming A Bestseller In Japan's Bookstores |work=Forbes.com |date=November 15, 2017 |access-date=April 24, 2018}}</ref>

=== The garret ===

The space of the [[garret]], in which Jacobs confined herself for seven years, has been taken up as a metaphor in Black critical thought, most notably by theorist [[Katherine McKittrick]]. In her text ''Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle'', McKittrick argues that the garret "highlights how geography is transformed by Jacobs into a usable and paradoxical space."<ref>{{cite book|last1=McKittrick|first1=Katherine|title=Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle|date=2006|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|page=xxviii}}</ref> When she initially enters her "loophole of retreat," Jacobs states that "[its] continued darkness was oppressive…without one gleam of light…[and] with no object for my eye to rest upon." However, once she bores holes through the space with a gimlet, Jacobs creates for herself an oppositional perspective on the workings of the plantation—she comes to inhabit what McKittrick terms a "disembodied master-eye, seeing from nowhere."<ref>{{cite book|last1=McKittrick|first1=Katherine|title=Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle|date=2006|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|page=43}}</ref> The garret offers Jacobs an alternate way of seeing, allowing her to reimagine freedom while shielding her from the hypervisibility to which Black people—especially Black women—are always already subject.

Katherine McKittrick reveals how theories of geography and spatial freedom produce alternative understandings and possibilities within [[Black feminism|Black feminist]] thought. By centering geography in her analysis, McKittrick portrays the ways in which gendered-racial-sexual domination is spatially organized. McKittrick writes, "Recognizing black women's knowledgeable positions as integral to physical, cartographic, and experiential geographies within and through dominant spatial models also creates an analytical space for black feminist geographies: black women's political, feminist, imaginary, and creative concerns that respatialize the geographic legacy of racism-sexism."<ref>McKittrick, Katherine (2006). ''Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle''. University of Minnesota Press. p. 53.</ref>

In analyzing the hiding place of Harriet Jacobs (Linda Brent) – the space of her grandmother's garret – McKittrick illuminates the tensions that exist within this space and how it occupies contradictory positions. Not only is the space of the garret one of resistance and freedom for Brent, but it is also a space of confinement and concealment. That is, the garret operates as a prison and, simultaneously, as a space of liberation. For Brent, freedom in the garret takes the form of loss of speech, movement, and consciousness. McKittrick writes, "Brent's spatial options are painful; the garret serves as a disturbing, but meaningful, response to slavery." As McKittrick reveals, the geographies of slavery are about gendered-racial-sexual captivities – in these sense, the space of the garret is both one of captivity and protection for Brent.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikisource}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/linda-brent/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl}}
* {{Gutenberg|no=11030|name=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl}}
* [http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/menu.html Works by Harriet Jacobs] at DocSouth including ''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself'', her first published text, and some of her reports from her work with fugitives
* {{librivox book | title=Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl | author=Harriet JACOBS}}
* [http://www.freeaudiobooksonline.org/book/incidents-in-the-life-of-a-slave-girl/ ''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl audio edition''] – MP3 Streams.
{{Slave narrative|state=expanded}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl}}
[[Category:1861 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Feminist books]]
[[Category:Slave narratives]]
[[Category:African-American autobiographies]]
[[Category:Works by Lydia Maria Child]]
[[Category:Works published under a pseudonym]]
[[Category:Non-fiction books about American slavery]]