Jacobs, Harriet Ann (1813–1897)

US author. She was born into slavery but escaped and, under the pen-name Linda Brent, she wrote the story of her experiences in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself 1861. The book was long forgotten until ‘rediscovered’ in the 1980s.

She was born a slave in Edenton, North Carolinaery. She was threatened by the sexual advances of her owner, James Norcom, but escaped and hid for seven years in her grandmother's attic. She made her way to New York City and worked there as a domestic servant. She worked as a nurse during the US Civil War.