by Harriet A. Jacobs

Bom into bondage in 1813, Harriet Jacobs endured the breakup of her immediate family more than once in her lifetime as a result of slavery. She suffered further from sexual advances made on her by her owner, took highly unusual steps to escape them, then documented her tale in an autobiography written to further the cause of the abolition movement in pre-Civil War America.

Events in History at the Time the Autobiography Takes Place

Slavery in North Carolina. In the early 1800s, the white population outnumbered the slave population in North Carolina by about two to one. Farms in this state tended to be small in comparison to some other parts of the South. Therefore, most of North Carolina's farmers held fewer than ten slaves...