List of Illustrations

p. xv

Introduction

p. xix

Note on the Text

p. lv

Chronology

p. lvii

Cast of Characters

p. lxii

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Preface by the Author

p. 1

Introduction by the Editor

p. 3

I

Childhood

p. 5

II

The New Master and Mistress

p. 10

III

The Slaves' New Year's Day

p. 17

IV

The Slave Who Dared to Feel like a Man

p. 20

V

The Trials of Girlhood

p. 33

VI

The Jealous Mistress

p. 38

VII

The Lover

p. 46

VIII

What Slaves Are Taught to Think of the North

p. 54

IX

Sketches of Neighboring Slaveholders

p. 58

X

A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl's Life

p. 68

XI

The New Tie to Life

p. 75

XII

Fear of Insurrection

p. 81

XIII

The Church and Slavery

p. 88

XIV

Another Link to Life

p. 98

XV

Continued Persecutions

p. 103

XVI

Scenes at the Plantation

p. 111

XVII

The Flight

p. 122

XVIII

Months of Peril

p. 126

XIX

The Children Sold

p. 135

XX

New Perils

p. 141

XXI

The Loophole of Retreat

p. 146

XXII

Christmas Festivities

p. 151

XXIII

Still in Prison

p. 154

XXIV

The Candidate for Congress

p. 159

XXV

Competition in Cunning

p. 163

XXVI

Important Era in My Brother's Life

p. 169

XXVII

New Destination for the Children

p. 175

XXVIII

Aunt Nancy

p. 183

XXIX

Preparations for Escape

p. 189

XXX

Northward Bound

p. 200

XXXI

Incidents in Philadelphia

p. 204

XXXII

The Meeting of Mother and Daughter

p. 210

XXXIII

A Home Found

p. 215

XXXIV

The Old Enemy Again

p. 219

XXXV

Prejudice against Color

p. 224

XXXVI

The Hairbreadth Escape

p. 228

XXXVII

A Visit to England

p. 234

XXXVIII

Renewed Invitations to Go South

p. 238

XXXIXe

The Confession

p. 241

XL

The Fugitive Slave Law

p. 244

XLI

Free at Last

p. 251

Appendix

p. 261

A True Tale of Slavery

I

Some Account of My Early Life

p. 265

II

A Further Account of My Family

p. 267

III

My Uncle's Troubles

p. 271

IV

My New Master's Plantation

p. 275

V

My Master Goes to Washington

p. 27S

VI

Sensations of Freedom

p. 282

VII

Cruel Treatment of Slaves

p. 286

Illustrations

p. 293

Abbreviations

p. 309

Correspondence

p. 311

Notes

p. 343

Selected Bibliography

p. 405

Acknowledgments

p. 413

Index

p. 417

This enlarged edition of the most significant and celebrated slave narrative completes the Jacobs family saga, surely one of the most memorable in all of American history. John S. Jacobs 's short slave narrative, A True Tale of Slavery , published in London in 1861, adds a brother's perspective to Harriet A. Jacobs 's autobiography. It is an exciting addition to this now classic work, as John Jacobs presents further historical information about family life so well described already by his sister. Once more, Jean Fagan Yellin , who discovered this long-lost document, supplies annotation and authentication. This is the standard edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl , reissued here in the John Harvard Library and updated with a new bibliography.