Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself.
Boston: Published for the Author, 1861.
First edition. A remarkable family presentation copy of this landmark African American autobiography, given by the author's daughter to friends and abolitionist allies, accompanied by extraordinary first-hand documentation of Jacobs's funeral. [4, blank] [2] 5–306 [4, blank] pp. 12mo. Bound in publisher's original light brown beaded cloth, covers blindstamped with a triple-rule border and small central floral ornament; spine stamped in gilt with LINDA and floral ornament. Jacobs chose to write under the pseudonym Linda Brent to protect her identity, and the book was commonly known under this title in the 19th century. Near Fine with light fading to spine, light tobacco smoke odor to contents, two-inch tear to front free endpaper and a smaller tear to first blank. Some gatherings loosening, as usual, as the sewing seems to have been substandard. Offsetting from newspaper clipping to the title page. Very rare in the original cloth binding, in this condition, and completely unrestored. Provenance: Two obituaries for Harriet Jacobs are appended to preliminary matter—one tipped onto the front pastedown and another mounted opposite the title page concludes, "Among the best friends and correspondents of "Linda" in her trials and struggles, was Rev. Samuel May of Leicester." Ownership signature of Sarah R. May (1813–1895), wife of Rev. Samuel May Jr. (1810–1899), anti-slavery activists in Leicester, Massachusetts, and first cousin, once removed, to Louisa May Alcott. Penciled beneath Sarah’s signature is a note indicating the book was received from Louisa Jacobs, the author's daughter, in 1886. Sarah May and her husband were early supporters of Jacobs School, a Freedman’s School in Alexandria, Virginia founded by Harriet and Louisa in 1863 to educate Black children freed from slavery. In most slave states, teaching slaves to read and write was forbidden and Virginia had even prohibited teaching these skills to free blacks. After Union troops occupied Alexandria in 1861, some schools for blacks emerged, but there was not a single free school under African American control. Jacobs supported a project conceived by the black community in 1863 to found a new school. In the fall of 1863 her daughter Louisa Matilda who had been trained as a teacher, came to Alexandria. After some struggle with white missionaries from the North who wanted to take control of the school, the Jacobs School opened in January 1864 under Louisa Matilda's leadership. “I do not object to a white teacher,” Jacobs wrote “but I think it has a good effect upon these people to convince them their own race can do something for their Elevation. It inspires them with confidence to help each other.” Also laid in is a remarkable 14-page holograph letter with the original transmittal envelope from Sarah Earle to Samuel May describing Jacob's 1897 funeral, including a handwritten copy of the eulogy delivered by Francis James Grimké, one of the leading African American ministers of the era. This letter appears to be the only surviving eyewitness account of Jacobs's funeral service, as only Grimké's personal copy of the eulogy praising Jacobs's character was previously known to exist. Earle was the widow of the owner of a successful iron foundry and devoted herself to educational causes in Massachusetts. According to the letter, she was an acquaintance of the Jacobs family and asked to attend the service. A fantastic copy with excellent provenance of the most important slave narrative by an African-American woman, which uniquely addresses the particular horrors slavery inflicted on women: "Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own." Where earlier male narratives focused on physical suffering and literacy, Jacobs transformed the genre by centering her story on motherhood and sexual exploitation, in the process writing an essential work of 19th century feminism.
Price: $175,000