Harriet’s Legacy
Posted by Nambi E. Kelley on 3/06/2008
Only moments ago I finished reading a book called Harriet Jacobs: A Life by Jean Fagin Yellin.
Things you may not know about Harriet Jacobs:
-Harriet never saw her grandmother again after she escaped to the north.
-Harriet never forgave Master Norcom for his horrific treatment of her and her family.
-Harriet escaped to the north and did find both of her children.
-Harriet’s book was first published in the United States in 1861, then went to London and got another publishing deal for her book abroad.
-Harriet’s son traveled with her brother to California and Australia.
-Harriet’s freedom was bought by a friend for $300.
-Harriet’s brother becomes a public speech maker and avid abolitionist leader who was on the same bill with Frederick Douglass at speaking events.
-Harriet’s daughter got educated and had aspirations of being a teacher.
-Harriet and her daughter started a school in the south called THE JACOBS SCHOOL.
-Harriet and her daughter worked to clothe, feed, and counsel refugees from the Civil War, open several boarding houses for both whites and black public officials, and travel between the north and south trying to help establish rights for free black folks and women.
-Harriet had to return to being a house servant, even as an elderly woman, so that she and her daughter could live.
-Harriet gets breast cancer at the end of her life, and survives!
-Harriet’s daughter nurses her mother until her mother dies, and continues to serve in the field of education, which was her mother’s dream for her life.
And this is just off the top of my head. There’s so much more. What an incredible woman. What an amazing spirit. I admit, as I rode the Red Line coming home from this morning’s show and turned the last page of the book, I cried. I will miss dear Harriet greatly.
But I am filled with pride. Filled with joy and hope. Because she lived, I now know that we can accomplish anything in this life if we insist on it as Harriet so often did.
In Harriet’s own words, she writes, “a soul that burned for freedom and a heart nerved with determination to suffer even unto death in pursuit of that liberty which without makes life an intolerable burden.” This was and is the legacy of Harriet Ann Jacobs.