Not only one of the last of over one hundred slave narratives published separately before the Civil War, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) is also one of the few existing narratives written by a woman. It offers a unique perspective on the complex plight of the black woman as slave and as writer. In a story that merges the conventions of the slave narrative with the techniques of the sentimental novel, Harriet Jacobs describes her efforts to fight off the advances of her master, her eventual liaison with another white man (the father of two of her children), and her ultimately...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The first edition (1861), with the editors' explanatory annotations, introduction, and glossary of the people of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Three illustrations. Key public statements by Harriet Jacobs, William C. Nell, the Reverend Francis J. Grimke, and others. A rich selection of correspondence by Harriet Jacobs, Lydia Maria Child, and John Greenleaf Whittier, suggesting Incidents's initial reception. Ten major critical essays, six of them new to the Second Edition. A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography. About the Series...