Biographies

Yellin, Jean Fagan. "'Written by Herself': Harriet Jacobs's Slave Narrative." American Literature 53, no. 3 (November 1981): 479-86.

Seminal study that reveals the existence of letters attesting to the authenticity of Jacobs's narrative and illuminating the editorial role of the white abolitionist Lydia Maria Child.

——. "Legacy Profile: Harriet Ann Jacobs." Legacy 5, no. 2 (fall 1988): 55-61.

Overview of Jacobs's life and her narrative.

——. "Harriet Jacobs's Family History." American Literature 66, no. 4 (December 1994): 765-77.

Corrects an error in her 1987 edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl regarding the identity of Jacobs's father.

——. Harriet Jacobs: A Life. New York: Perseus Books, 2004, 394 p.

Details Jacobs's life before and after her writing Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Criticism

Accomando, Christine. "'The laws were laid down to me anew': Harriet Jacobs and the Reframing of Legal Fictions." African American Review 32, no. 2 (summer 1998): 229-45.

Contends that Jacobs's narrative includes a sustained...