Born a slave in North Carolina, Harriet Jacobs’s happy childhood ignorance of slavery ended when she was six years old. That was when her mother died, and Harriet became the companion and helpmate of her mother’s child-mistress. Over the following six years, Harriet was treated kindly and was even taught how to read, though this was against state law.
At age twelve, Harriet’s pleasant life ended with the death of her gentle mistress. Harriet was bequeathed to a five-year-old girl with an immoral father, a man so heartless that when Harriet’s father died, she wasn’t allowed to grieve at her late father’s home—because she had to decorate her master’s home for an evening party.
A couple of years later the contemptable man sexually harassed Harriet. His humiliated wife took out her rage and jealousy on Harriet, who had done nothing but discourage the master. Harriet was cognizant that the offspring of a master and any female slave became his property, and that it was a crime for any slave to mention a white man’s biological ties to his mixed-race children.
The moral crime was that white owners thought nothing of selling their young offspring, especially if there was physical resemblance to the father. The pleading and anguish of the mothers were at best ignored, at worst laughed at. Many were even punished for making a scene. Harriet was disgusted that a pastor wouldn’t be dismissed for having extramarital relations with a colored woman, yet his career was ruined if the affair was with a white woman.
Much to her shame, Harriet couldn’t resist the temptation of a charismatic slaveholder who had befriended her. From this liaison Harriet had two babies, thus increasing the value of her despised master’s property. The master was mortified that, despite his pleas to become her paramour, Harriet favored another white man.
After the birth of her second child, he banished Harriet from her grandmother’s home to his son’s plantation, many hours’ walk away. This left Harriet’s little ones in the care of the “free” grandmother. Also, the spurned master adamantly vowed that he would never allow the grandmother to “buy” Harriet or her children.
Hearing this dictate, Harriet resolved to abscond to a free state with her youngsters before they became valuable commodities. Everyone knew that slaves caught trying to escape were punished by torture and sometimes death, and that the pursuers nearly always caught the runaways. Only the most cunning escapees succeeded, and Harriet was cunning.
She persevered through harrowing experiences, and ended up hidden in an almost unlivable nine- by seven-foot garret that had no height over three feet. For air and light, Harriet created a hole one inch in diameter. Her loved ones took care of her physical needs, and her only joy was to witness her unknowing children at play. This dungeon-like existence lasted nearly seven years, during the last two of which Harriet snuck daily stretches of an hour or two to regain strength in her atrophied legs.
Finally, an opportunity came for Harriet to escape safely to New York; however, shortly thereafter, the odious 1850 Fugitive Slave Law was passed. It mandated that a master, or representative thereof, could force a slave’s return to the “rightful” owner. Harriet then moved to Boston for greater security due to that city’s more pro-abolitionist populace.
There Harriet met a sympathetic white woman who employed her as a nurse for her infant. Sadly, this new employer died, but Harriet was still needed to care for the infant. Fortunately, the child’s widowed father married a wonderful lady who loved Harriet so much that she arranged to buy her freedom. At about the same time, Harriet’s grandmother purchased her grandchildren.
Harriet had the children educated, but sadly lost touch with her adult son. Harriet and her daughter remained close, however, and both focused on the education of Negroes, abolition, and women’s suffrage.
To learn more about the trials of Harriet Jacobs, giantess of perseverance, read her autobiography: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.