Harriet Jacobs

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
A NORTON CRITICAL EDITION

Edited by
Nellie Y. McKay,
University of Wisconsin,
and
Frances Smith Foster,
Emory University

384 pages
ISBN 0-393-97637-8
paper


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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the first full-length narrative written by a former woman slave in America. The text is that of the 1861 first edition.

Contexts includes contemporary responses to Incidents, selections from Jacobs's other published writings, and extracts from her correspondence.

Criticism includes eleven important assessments of the narrative, contributed by Jean Fagan Yellin, Ann Taves, Valerie Smith, Nellie Y. McKay, Harryette Mullen, Michelle Burnham, Nell Irvin Painter, Frances Smith Foster, Sandra Gunning, Elizabeth V. Spelman, and Christine Accomando.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included.