Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Page 31
CHAPTER XXXII: The Meeting of Mother and Daughter
1 Pounds, shillings, and pence—the system of English money—was in use in the United States in the early nineteenth century. One pound equaled twenty shillings; each shilling equaled twelve pence.
2 Until 1898, Brooklyn was a city separate from New York, reached by ferry across the East River until the erection of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883.
3 Many fugitive slaves (such as Frederick Douglass) lived in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where they found jobs in industry and at sea.
CHAPTER XXXIII: A Home Found
1 Mary Stace Willis (c. 1816-1845) was the first wife of Nathaniel Parker Willis. The child was Imogen, born in 1842. The Willis family lived in the Astor Hotel, where John S. Jacobs had left Samuel Tredwell Sawyer. See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, by Harriet A. Jacobs. Edited by L. Maria Child (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 285.
CHAPTER XXXV: Prejudice Against Color
1 Saratoga Springs was a favorite resort for wealthy Southerners.
2 Rockaway is a Long Island beach just south of Brooklyn on the Atlantic Ocean.
CHAPTER XXXVI: The Hairbreadth Escape
1 Jean Fagan Yellin (ed., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, by Harriet A. Jacobs. Edited by L. Maria Child [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987], 286) identifies Mr. Thorne as Mary Bonner Blount Tredwell’s brother, Joseph Blount.
2 Arent Van der Poel (1799-1870) was judge of the Superior Court from 1843 to 1850. John Hooper (1815-1864) was the son of the Quaker abolitionist Isaac T. Hooper. See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents, 286. The Hooper father and son were also good friends of Maria Child, who lived with the Hooper family in the early 1840s, when she edited the New York National Anti-Slavery Standard.
3 The boat stopped at Stonington, Connecticut, where the Jacobses could board the train to Boston instead of traveling the entire route by sea.
CHAPTER XXXVII: A Visit to England
1 The Hon. Amelia Matilda Murray (1795-1884) gave a positive report of slavery in her Letters from the United States, Cuba and Canada (1856). See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, by Harriet A. Jacobs. Edited by L. Maria Child (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 287.
CHAPTER XXXVIII: Renewed Invitations to Go South
1 Mary Matilda Norcom married Daniel Messmore in 1846. See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, by Harriet A. Jacobs. Edited by L. Maria Child (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 287.
CHAPTER XXXIX: The Confession
1 Jean Fagan Yellin (ed., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, by Harriet A. Jacobs. Edited by L. Maria Child [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987], 287) says Louisa was most likely enrolled in the Young Ladies Domestic Seminary, Clinton, New York, founded and led by an abolitionist, Hiram H. Kellogg (1803-1881).
2 The Rochester reading room was located above the offices of Frederick Douglass’s North Star newspaper offices.
3 Amy (1802-1889) and Isaac (1798-1872) Post, a white feminist abolitionist couple, had twice broken away from their Quaker denomination in order to oppose slavery and defend the rights of women alongside non-Quakers. Amy Post had taken part in the first women’s rights meeting at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Among their other African-American abolitionist friends, the Posts included William C. Nell and Sojourner Truth.
CHAPTER XL: The Fugitive Slave Law
1 Nathaniel Parker Willis married Cornelia Grinnell (1825- 1904) in October 1846. The new baby was the Willises second child, Lilian, born in April 1850. See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, by Harriet A. Jacobs. Edited by L. Maria Child (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 290.
2 James Hamlet was the first victim of the Fugitive Slave Act in New York City. John S. Jacobs spoke at the mostly black demonstration at Zion Church in early October 1850 to protest Hamlet’s arrest. The meeting raised $800 to buy Hamlet’s freedom. His welcome back to the city as a free man took place later in October. See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents, 289-290.
3 Zion was the founding church of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion connection and broke away from the white John Street Methodist Church in 1802.
4 Jean Fagan Yellin (ed., Incidents, 290) says Jacobs and the Willis baby evidently took shelter with the baby’s Grinnell grandparents. Joseph Grinnell, a Whig, served in the United States House of Representatives in 1843-1851, where he abstained from the vote on the Fugitive Slave Bill.
CHAPTER XLI: Free at Last
1 James Norcom, M.D., died on 9 November 1850. See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, by Harriet A. Jacobs. Edited by L. Maria Child (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 290.
2 John Mitchel (1815-1875), an Irish nationalist and founder of the New York Citizen, proclaimed that “We, for our part, wish we had a good plantation, well-stocked with healthy negroes, in Alabama.” See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents, 291.
3 The Reverend John B. Pinney of the New York Colonization Society helped Corneila Grinnell Willis buy Harriet Jacobs. See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents, 291.
APPENDIX
1 George W. Lowther is identified as “a highly respectable colored citizen of Boston,” in the National Anti-Slavery Standard, 23 February 1861.
JOHN S. JACOBS, “A TRUE TALE OF SLAVERY”
CHAPTER I: Some Account of My Early Life
1 John S. Jacobs’s first owner was Penelope Horniblow. His sister, Harriet Jacobs, was the property of James N. Norcom.
2 Jacobs’s parents were Delilah (c. 1797-c. 1819) and Elijah Knox (d. 1826).
3 Elijah Knox was the property of Dr. Andrew Knox. See Jean Fagan Yellin, “Harriet Jacobs’s Family History,” American Literature 66, no. 4 (December 1994): 765. See also Jean Fagan Yellin, “Through Her Brother’s Eyes: Incidents and ‘A True Tale,’ ” in Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, ed. Deborah M. Garfield and Rafia Zafar (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 44-56.
4 The rich planter may have been Josiah Collins III. See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, by Harriet A. Jacobs. Edited by L. Maria Child (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 20-26; and Robanna Sumrell Knott, “Harriet Jacobs: The Edenton Biography,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1994, 129.
CHAPTER II: A Further Account of My Family, and of My New Master
1 Jacobs’s grandmother is also Harriet Jacobs’s grandmother, Mary (Molly) Horniblow (d. 1853).
2 The trusty friend was evidently Congressman Albert Gatlin. See P. Gabrielle Foreman, “Manifest in Signs: The Politics of Sex and Representation in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” in Harriet Jacobs, ed. Deborah M. Garfield and Rafia Zafar (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 92.
3 Molly Horniblow’s three other children were Aunt Betty (c. 1794-1841), owned by James Norcom (Aunt Nancy in Incidents), Mark Ramsey (c. 1800-1858), whom Molly Horniblow purchased, and Joseph (1808-?), who escaped twice.
4 Aunt Betty was sent to jail with Harriet’s two children and John S. Jacobs.
5 James Iredell Tredwell (1799-1846), cousin of Samuel Tredwell Sawyer, originally of Edenton, lived in Brooklyn and experienced difficulty keeping remunerative employment.
CHAPTER III: My Uncle’s Troubles-My Further Experience of the Doctor, and Our Parting
1 Samuel Tredwell Sawyer, John S. Jacobs’s owner, was the father of Harriet Jacobs’s two children.
CHAPTER IV: My New Master’s Plantation-My Medical Practice Among the Slaves-My Sister’s Hiding-Place
1 Dr. Matthias Sawyer (d. 1835), James Norcom’s partner, was the father (not the brother) of Samuel Tredwell Sawyer.
CHAPTER V: My Master Goes to Washington as Member of Congress-He Is Engaged to Be Married-Wedding Trip to Chicago-Canada-New York—My Escape from Slavery
1 Samuel Tredwell Sawyer was elected to Congress in 1837. He served one term only.
2 Sawyer boarded with the family of Lavinia Peyton (c. 1818-?), whom he married in August 1838. Her sister, Cornelia (c. 1810-?), lived in Chicago. See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, by Harriet A. Jacobs. Edited by L. Maria Child (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 280-281.
3 The Sawyers and John S. Jacobs were staying at the Astor House in New York, where Harriet Jacobs lived with the Willises.
CHAPTER VI: Sensations of Freedom-Self-Education-A Whaling Voyage-I Meet My Sister, and Hear from Her About My Friends at Edenton-Tbe Fugitive Slave Bill
1 Mary Matilda Norcom married Daniel Messmore (called Daniel Dodge in Incidents) in 1846. See Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, by Harriet A. Jacobs. Edited by L. Maria Child (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 287.
CHAPTER VII: Cruel Treatment of Slaves—The Fugitive Slave Law-Slavery Opposed to Natural Rights and to Christianity
1 Dr. James Norcom, Jr., had a brother named William, but evidently not a brother named Josiah. See Robanna Sumrell Knott, “Harriet Jacobs: The Edenton Biography,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1994, 157. The other two doctors mentioned are Matthias Sawyer and Josiah Collins III.
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a
The poison of a snake is a powerful acid, and is counteracted by powerful alkalies, such as potash, ammonia, &c. The Indians are accustomed to apply wet ashes, or plunge the limb into strong lie. White men, employed to lay out railroads in snaky places, often carry ammonia with them as an antidote.—EDITOR.
b
The writer of these autobiographical sketches has, since his escape from slavery, held positions of trust in free countries, and every statement may be relied on, although it is not thought advisable to publish names in full.