Harriet Jacobs was born in North Carolina in 1813, the daughter of a slave named James. She was sold at age 6 to a slave trader, who after several moves took her to Maryland. There she was sold to Alexander and Harriet Jacobs, who were advocates for the education of their slaves. As an adult, she escaped slavery with the assistance of her white sister.
Jacobs became the first African-American woman to publish an autobiography while living in New York City in 1857
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Jacobs left New York to return home to North Carolina; there she wrote her autobiography while working as a seamstress. It was not published until 1913 after Jacobs' death, when it was edited by her sister Angelina Grimke and published under the title "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" (Harriet Jacobs Papers).
Jacobs died in Philadelphia in 1885, aged 65.