WrittenBy Herself: Harriet Jacobs' Slave Narrative

JEAN FAGAN YELLIN Pace University

I

Your proposalto me has been thoughtover and over again, but not withoutsome mostpainful remembrance. Dear Amy,if it was the lifeof a heroinewith no degradationassociated with it! Far betterto have been one of the starvingpoor of Ireland whose bones had to bleach on the highwaysthan to havebeen a slavewith the curse of slaverystamped upon yourselfand children.. . . I have triedfor the last two yearsto conquer . . . [my stubbornpride] and I feel thatGod has helped me, or I never would consentto givemy past life to anyone,for I would not do it without giving the whole truth.If it could help save anotherfrom my fate,it wouldbe selfishand unChristianin me to keepit back.' Ay 7ITH THESE WORDS, more than a centuryago the newly emanci- pated fugitive slave Harriet Jacobs expressed conflictingre- sponses to a friend'ssuggestion that she make her life storypublic. Although she finallysucceeded in writingand publishing her sensa- tional tale, its authenticity-long questioned-has recently been denied. Jacobs'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: WrittenBy Herself has just been transformedfrom a questionable slave narrative into a well-documentedpseudonymous autobiography,however, by the discoveryof a cache of her letters.2 1 This passage comes fromone of thirtyletters from Harriet Jacobs to Amy Post in the Post FamilyPapers recentlyacquired by the Universityof RochesterLibrary. Labeled n.d. #84, it was probablywritten at the end of I852 or the beginningof I853. All of the letterscited from Jacobs to Post are in this collection.Most note only day and month; my attemptsto supply missingdates may be in error.Editing Jacobs'letters, I have regularizedparagraphing, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, but not otherwise tamperedwith text. I hasten to recordmy considerabledebt to DorothySterling who includes some of Jacobs'letters in A Woman and Black (Norton,in press) and with whom I am writing a book on Jacobs; to Karl Kabelac of the Universityof RochesterLibrary; and to PatriciaG. Holland, co-editorof The CollectedCorrespondence of Lydia Maria Child, I8I7-I880 (Millwood,N.Y.: K.T.O. Microform,I979). 2 [Harriet Jacobs],Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Writtenby Herself. Ed. American Literature, Volume 53, Number 3, November I98I. Copyright ? I98I by Duke University Press. 480 AmericanLiterature Thiscorrespondence establishes Jacobs' authorship and clarifies the roleof her editor. In doingso, it providesus witha newperspective on an unlikelygrouping of nineteenth-centurywriters-Nathaniel P. Willis,Harriet Beecher Stowe, William C. Nell,and L. Maria Child-and enrichesour literaryhistory by presentingus witha uniquechronicle of theefforts of an underclassblack woman to writeand publishher autobiography in antebellum America.

II

The appearanceof Jacobs'letters has made it possibleto traceher life.She was bornnear Edenton, North Carolina, about i8i5. In Incidents,she writes that her parents died while she was a child,and thatat thedeath of herbeloved mistress (who had taughther to readand spell) shewas sentto a licentiousmaster. He subjected her to unrelentingsexual harassment. In her teensshe boretwo childrento another white man. When her jealous master threatened herwith concubinage, Jacobs ran away. Aided by sympathetic black and whiteneighbors, she was shelteredby her family and foryears remainedhidden in thehome of hergrandmother, a freed slave. Duringthis time the father of her children, who had boughtthem fromher master,allowed them to live with her grandmother. Althoughlater he took their little girl to a freestate, he failed to keep hispromise to emancipate the children. AboutI842, HarrietJacobs finally escaped North, contacted her daughter,was joined by her son, and found work in NewYork City. Becausethe baby she was hired to tend was the daughter of litterateur N. P. Willis,it has been possible to use Willis' materials to piece out- and to corroborate-Jacobs'story.3 In I849 shemoved to Rochester, New York,where the Women's Rights Convention had recently metand where Frederick Douglass' North Star was being published

L. Maria Child (Boston: For the Author, i86i). An English edition appeared the followingyear: [Harriet Jacobs],The Deeper Wrong: Or, Incidentsin the Life of a Slave Girl. Writtenby Herself.Ed. L. Maria Child. (London: W. Tweedie, I862). ExaminingIncidents in a discussionof "fictionalaccounts . . . in which the major charactermay have been a real fugitive,but the narrativeof his life is probablyfalse," JohnBlassingame recently judged that "the work is not credible."See The Slave Com- munity(New York: OxfordUniv. Press, I972), pp. 233-34. 3 Willis referredto Jacobsdirectly-though not by name-in a House and Home columnreprinted in Outdoorsat Idlewild (New York: Scribner's,I855), pp. 275-76. Notes 481 each week. With her brother,a fugitiveactive in the abolitionist movement,she ran an antislaveryreading room and met other reformers.Jacobs made theRochester Quaker Amy Post,a feminist and abolitionist,her confidante;her lettersto Post date fromthis period.In SeptemberI850 Jacobsreturned to New York and resumed workin theWillis household.When she was again houndedby her owner,she and her childrenwere purchasedand manumittedby Willis. It was following this-between I853 and I858-that Jacobs acquiescedto Post's urgings;after a brushwith HarrietBeecher Stowe,she wrote out thestory of her life by herself. With the help of black abolitionistwriter William C. Nell and white abolitionist woman of lettersL. Maria Child (whose correspondence,too, cor- roboratesJacobs'), her narrative was finallypublished early in i86i.4 As thenational crisis deepened, Jacobs attempted to swellsentiment forEmancipation by publicizingand circulatingher book. During theCivil War she wentto Washington,D.C., to nurseblack troops; she later returnedSouth to help the freedmen.Jacobs remained activelyengaged for the nextthirty years. She died at Washington, D.C., in I897.

III

The primaryliterary importance of HarrietJacobs' letters to Amy Post is that theyestablish her authorshipof Incidentsand define therole of hereditor, L. Maria Child. They also yielda fascinating accountof theexperiences of thisunderclass black femaleautobiog- rapherwith several antebellum writers. Jacobs'letters express her conviction that, unlike both his firstand his secondwife, Nathaniel P. Willis was "pro-slavery,"and writings likehis picturesque I859 accountof slavelife entitled "Negro Happi- ness in Virginia"must have confirmedher judgment.5Because of

4Nell reviewedIncidents in The Liberator,25 Jan. I86i. Other reviewsinclude The NationalAnti-Slavery Standard, 23 Feb. I86I, and The WeeklyAnglo-African, I3 April I86i. Relevantpassages from Child's correspondence are citedbelow. 5For Jacobson Willis, see Jacobsto Post, Cornwall,Orange County (late i852-early i853?) n.d. #84. Child commentedon Jacobs'relationship with Willis in a letterto JohnG. Whittierdated 4 April I86i, now in the Child Papers,Manuscript Division, the Libraryof Congress.Willis' articlewas anthologizedin The Convalescent(New York: Scribner's,I859), pp. 40O-I6. 482 American Literature this-althoughshe repeatedlysought help to win the timeand privacyto write,and evenrequested introductions to public figures in hopethat they would effect the publication of herbook-Jacobs consistentlyrefused to ask for Willis' aid. She did not even want him toknow that she was writing. For years, while living under his roof, sheworked on her book secretly and at night. Her briefinvolvement with Harriet Beecher Stowe was decisive in thegenesis of Incidents.When Jacobs first agreed to a public accountof her life, she did notplan to writeit herself,but to enlist Stowe'said in helpingher produce a dictatednarrative. To thisend, Jacobsasked Post to approachUncle Tom's creatorwith the sug- gestionthat Jacobs be invitedto Stowe's home so theycould become acquainted.Then, reading in thepapers of the author's plan to travel abroad,Jacobs persuaded Mrs. Willis to write suggesting that Stowe permitJacobs' daughter Louisa to accompanyher to Englandas a "representativesouthern slave." HarrietBeecher Stowe evidently responded by writingto Mrs. Willisthat she would not take Jacobs' daughter with her, by for- wardingto Mrs.Willis Post's sketch of Jacobs'sensational life for verification,and by proposingthat if it was true,she herselfuse Jacobs'story in TheKey to UncleTom's Cabin, which she was rush- ingto complete. Reporting all ofthis to Post, Jacobs suggests that she feltdenigrated as a mother,betrayed as a woman,and threatened as a writerby Stowe's action. [Mrs.Stowe] said it wouldbe muchcare to herto takeLouisa. As she wentby invitation, it would not be right,and shewas afraidthat if . . . [Louisa's]situation as a slaveshould be known,it wouldsubject her to muchpetting and patronizing,which would be morepleasing to a young girl than useful;and the English were veryapt to do it, and . . . [Mrs. Stowe]was verymuch opposed to it withthis class of people.... I had neveropened my life to Mrs.Willis concerning my children. . It embarrassedme at first,but I toldher the truth; but we boththought it wrongin Mrs.Stowe to havesent your letter. She mighthave written toinquire if she liked. Mrs.Willis wrote her a verykind letter begging that she wouldnot useany of the facts in herKey, saying that I wishedit to be a historyof my lifeentirely by itself,which would do moregood, and it neededno romance;but if she wanted some facts for her book, that I wouldbe most Notes 483 happyto giveher some. She neveranswered the letter. She [Mrs.Willis] wroteagain, and I wrotetwice, with no better success. I thinkshe did not like my objection. I can't help it.6 Jacobslater expressed her racial outrage: "Think, dear Amy, that a visitto StaffordHouse would spoilme, as Mrs.Stowe thinks petting is morethan my race can bear? Well, what a pitywe poor blacks can't have the firmnessand stabilityof characterthat you white people have !"' Jacobs'distrust of Willis and disillusionmentwith Stowe contrast withher confidencein William C. Nell and L. Maria Child. After the Stowe episode,Jacobs decided to writeher storyherself. She spentyears on themanuscript and, when it was finished,more years tryingto get it publishedin England and America.Finally, in a letterspelling out thecost of herlack of an endorsementfrom Willis or Stowe,she reportedto Post thatNell and Child were helping arrangefor the publication of her autobiography.

Difficultiesseemed to thicken,and I becamediscouraged. . . . My manu- scriptwas read at Phillipsand Sampson.They agreed to takeit ifI could getMrs. Stowe or Mr.Willis to writea prefacefor it. The formerI had thesecond clinch [?] from,and thelatter I wouldnot ask, and before anythingwas done,this establishment failed. So I gaveup theeffort until thisautumn [when] I sentit to Thayerand Eldridgeof Boston.They werewilling to publish it if I couldobtain a prefacefrom Mrs. Child. ... I had neverseen Mrs. Child. Past exp'erience made me trembleat the thoughtof approachinganother satellite of so greatmagnitude . .. [but] throughW. C. Nell's readykindness, I met Mrs. Child at the antislaveryoffice. Mrs. C. is likeyourself, a whole-souled woman. We soon foundthe way to each other'sheart. I will send you some of her letters.. .

6 My discussionof Jacobsand Stowe is based on five lettersfrom Jacobsto Post: Cornwall,Orange County(late 1852-earlyI853?) n.d. #84; 14 Feb. (i853?); 4 April (i853?); New Bedford,Mass. (Spring, i853?) n.d. #80; 3I July (i854?) n.d. #88. The lengthyquotation is fromJacobs to Post, 4 April (i853?). I have been unable to locateany lettersto Stowe fromPost, Cornelia Willis, or Jacobs,or fromStowe to Cornelia Willis. 7 Jacobsto Post,New Bedford,Mass. (Spring,i853?) n.d. #80. 8Jacobsto Post, 8 Oct. (i86o?). I have not been able to documenta second attempt to gain Stowe's backing. Jacobs discussesher effortsto publish her book abroad in lettersto Post dated 2I June (i857?) n.d. #go; New Bedford,9 August (0957?); I March(i858?); and Cambridge,3 May (i858?) n.d. #87. 484 American Literature Accompanyingthis correspondence are two lettersfrom L. Maria Child to Harriet Jacobs.These, I believe,resolve the questions historianshave repeatedlyraised concerning the editingof Jacobs' manuscript.Child beginsthe firstby describingher editorialproce- duresin muchthe same way she laterdiscussed them in her Intro- ductionto Incidents. I havebeen busy with your M.S. eversince I saw you;and haveonly doneone-third of it. I havevery little occasion to alter the language, which is wonderfullygood, for one whoseopportunities for education have beenso limited.The eventsare interesting,and well told; theremarks are also good,and to thepurpose. But I am copyinga greatdeal of it, forthe purpose of transposingsentences and pages,so as to bringthe storyinto continuousorder, and the remarksinto appropriateplaces. I thinkyou will see thatthis renders the storymuch more clear and entertaining. Child's second letteris a detailedexplanation of the publisher's contract.9 Jacobs'letters are also of value in providinga unique running accountof the effortsof this newly emancipatedAfro-American woman to produceher autobiography.After deciding to writethe manuscriptherself, she followedthe long-standingpractice of send- ing apprenticepieces to thenewspapers. In styleand in subject,her firstpublic letter reflects her privatecorrespondence and prefigures herbook by usingthe language of politeletters to discussthe sexual exploitationof women in slavery.Jacobs begins with an announce- mentof her newlyfound determination to tell her tale by herself. Then-as in theletters and thebook-she expressesthe pain shefeels as sherecalls and writesabout her life. Poor as it maybe, I had rathergive . [my story]from my own hand, than have it said thatI employedothers to do it forme. . ..

9 Child to Jacobs,Wayland, I3 August i86o; and Wayland, 27 Sept. i86o. Any remainingdoubts concerningChild's role must, I think,rest on an undated plea for secrecyfrom Jacobsto Post: "Please let no one see these letters.I am pledged to Mrs. Child thatI will tell no one what she has done, as she is beset by so manypeople, and it would affectthe book. It mustbe the slave's own story-whichit trulyis." To my mind,this reflectsan effortto shield Child frominterruption while she edits the manu- script,not an attemptto hide editorialimproprieties. Also see Child to Lucy [Searle], 4 Feb. i86i in the Lydia Maria Child Papers, Anti-SlaveryCollection of Cornell Uni- versityLibraries. Notes 485 I was borna slave,raised in the Southernhot-bed until I was the motherof twochildren, sold at theearly age of twoand fouryears old. I havebeen hunted through all of theNorthern States-but no, I will nottell you of my own suffering-no, it would harrow up mysoul... Encouragedby the publication of thisletter, Jacobs secretly com- posedothers. Her correspondenceduring this period reveals that she wasat once determined towrite, apprehensive about her ability to do so,and fearful of being discovered: "No onehere ever suspected me [of writingto the Tribune].I would not have Mrs. W. to know it beforeI had undertakenmy history,for I mustwrite just what I have lived and witnessedmyself. Don't expectmuch of me, dear Amy.You shallhave truth, but not talent."" The lettersrecord other pressures. During the yearsJacobs com- posedher extraordinary memoirs, Mr. and Mrs.Willis moved into an eighteen-roomestate and added two morechildren to theirfamily; Jacobs'work load increasedaccordingly. Writing to Post,she voiced the frustrationsof a would-bewriter who earned her living as a nursemaid:"Poor Hatty'sname is so muchin demandthat I cannot accomplishmuch; if I couldsteal away and havetwo quiet months to myself,I would worknight and day thoughit shouldall fall to the ground."She wenton, however, to saythat she preferredthe endless interruptionsto revealingher project to heremployers: "To get this timeI shouldhave to explainmyself, and no one hereexcept Louisa knowsthat I have everwritten anything to be put in print.I have not the courage to meet the criticismand ridicule of educated people."'2 Her distressabout the contentof her book was even worsethan herembarrassment about its formal flaws. As her manuscriptneared completion,Jacobs asked Post to identifyherself with the book in a letterexpressing her concernabout its sensationalaspects and her need forthe acceptanceof anotherwoman: "I have thoughtthat I wantedsome female friend to writea prefaceor some introductory remarks . . . yet believe me, dear friend, there are many painful

10 "Letter From a Fugitive Slave," New York Tribtine, 2I June i853. Jacobs' second letterappeared on 25 JulyI853. 11 Jacobs to Post, 9 Oct. (i853?) n.d. #85. Also see Jacobs to Post, Cornwall, 25 June (i853?). 12 Jacobsto Post, Cornwall, i I Jan. (I 854 ?) . 486 American Literature thingsin . . . [mybook] thatmake me shrinkfrom asking the sacrificefrom one so good and pure as yourself."13

IV

WhileIncidents embodies the general characteristics of the slave narrative,it has long been judged a peculiarexample of this Americangenre. It is not,like most,the storyof a life but,as its titleannounces, of incidentsin a life.Like othernarrators, Jacobs assertedher authorship in hersubtitle, wrote in thefirst person, and addressedthe subjectof the oppressionof chattelslavery and the strugglefor freedomfrom the perspectiveof one who had been enslaved.But in hertitle she identifiedherself by gender,and in her textaddressed a specificaspect of thissubject. Incidents is an account by a woman of her struggleagainst her oppressionin slaveryas a sexualobject and as a mother.Thus it presentsa doublecritique of our nineteenth-centuryideas and institutions.It inevitably challenges notonly the institution of chattelslavery and itssupporting ideology of whiteracism; it also challengestraditional patriarchal institutions and ideas. Publicationof thisbook marked,I think,a uniquemoment in our literaryhistory. Incidents defied the taboos prohibiting women from discussingtheir sexuality-much less theirsexual exploitation-in print.Within its pages,a well-knownwoman writerpresented to the public the writingof a pseudynomous"impure woman" on a "forbiddensubject." Here a black American woman, defying barriersof caste and class, defyingrules of sexual propriety,was joined by a whiteAmerican woman to make her historyknown in an attemptto effectsocial change. It is ironicthat this narrative, whichwas painfullywritten in an effortto give "the whole truth," has been brandedfalse. Now thatthe discoveryof HarrietJacobs' lettershas establishedthat her book was indeed WrittenBy Herself, we can reexamineits place within women's writings, Afro-American literature,and thebody of our national letters.

13 Jacobs to Post, I8 May and 8 June (i857?). Post's signed statement in the Appendix to Incidents was writtenin response to this request.