Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself is an autobiography by Harriet Jacobs, a mother and fugitive slave, published in 1861 by L. Maria Child, who edited the book for its author. J
Frontispiece of the first edition
Harriet Jacobs, 1894
An 1862 pirated British edition, with an image on the cover of Harriet Jacobs hiding in the attic as a slave catcher confronts her grandmother.
Nathaniel Parker Willis
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Nathaniel Parker Willis, also known as N. P. Willis, was an American writer, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
…composed Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl after her escape to New York, while living and working at Idlewild, the home of writer and publisher Nathaniel Parker Willis. Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina in 1813. When she was a child, her mistress taught her to read and write, skills that…
Portrait of Willis c. mid-1850s
A young Nathaniel Parker Willis
American Scenery by N. P. Willis with illustration by William Henry Bartlett, 1840
Willis became the highest-paid magazine writer in America.