This book is 
first on the syllabus for a class I’m taking this semester entitled Black Women Writers at Work, and when I first sat down to read it, there was no way I could have been prepared for the emotional journey ahead. I cried, sent multiple texts to my friends also in the class somewhere along the lines of “Can you believe this book?!?!” and left class discussions with so much to chew on regarding race, privilege, and the implications of slavery.
At a time when issues of race are central to our societal discourse, it’s more important than ever to reexamine what we consider a part of the literary canon. America’s early literary discussions on race found their place mainly through the slave narrative, most recognizably Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, but, over time, gems like Harriet Jacob’s 1861 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl have fallen through the cracks, too radical and political of a narrative for much mainstream attention.
Jacobs’ harrowing story includes sexual abuse at the hands of her master and a seven-year long stay in a garrett above her grandmother’s house with no light or air coming in and so little room to move that she never fully recovered the use of her limbs. In a time when sexual abuse, especially towards slave women, was too taboo of a topic for many writers to dare touching on, Harriet Jacobs is candid in her depiction of the realities more slave women than not were forced to endure. Her story is revolutionary and brave, cutting no corners on the degradation inherent to the slave trade, so controversial in fact that Harriet Beecher Stowe (famed author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin) refused to touch it when approached to ghostwrite the narrative for Harriet Jacobs.
In retrospect, we as readers should be glad that Harriet Jacobs ended up writing her own narrative, though; her prose is beautiful, and her ability to portray issues of race with nuanced and careful understanding has the power to enhance our perspective on slavery even today. All in all, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to add more under-sung black authors to their shelves this Black History Month!
Post by WB Intern Kat Shuttlesworth
Kat Shuttlesworth is studying English and Feminist Studies at Southwestern University. Raised in White Oak, Texas, she’s been in love with reading and writing for as long as she can remember, holing herself away in her room for days at a time to binge-read Nancy Drew books as a little girl. Now, as an adult, she loves to converge her two disciplines in personal writings that reflect the importance of storytelling in activism. On any given night, she’s burning incense, doing yoga, or grabbing coffee with her friends.