Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by charlotekerstenauthor
Harriet Jacobs: A Life by Jean Fagan Yellin
(Cw abuse and sexual violence) I'm taking a whole star off of this because of how mad it made me when Yellin stated that Jacobs' impassioned hatred for her master -the man who sexually, emotionally, verbally and physically abused and harassed her and her family for years, in addition to, you know, owning her and exerting control over every aspect of her life- was probably so intense because of the psychological side effects of her time in hiding. Are you kidding me with this, Yellin? Fuck right off.
Other than that one bewilderingly stupid take, this is a great biography of a remarkable woman - Harriet Jacobs was a formerly-enslaved black woman who fought for her freedom and that of her children and authored the first American female slave narrative. In addition to this, I learned in this biography that she was also incredibly active in the support of black refugees during and after the Civil War. For years people assumed that Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was a fictional work, until Yellin made the connection between Jacobs and Incidents and dedicated decades to studying her life.
Other than that one bewilderingly stupid take, this is a great biography of a remarkable woman - Harriet Jacobs was a formerly-enslaved black woman who fought for her freedom and that of her children and authored the first American female slave narrative. In addition to this, I learned in this biography that she was also incredibly active in the support of black refugees during and after the Civil War. For years people assumed that Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was a fictional work, until Yellin made the connection between Jacobs and Incidents and dedicated decades to studying her life.