Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

“Those familiar with Harriet Jacobs’s autobiography will discover new, vital details about her lifelong struggle in defense of Black women and Black people. Those encountering this work for the first time will be profoundly altered by Jacobs’s relentless pursuit of equal rights and justice. This beautifully rendered edition is a must-read for all.” — Kali Gross, Emory University

“Koritha Mitchell is a brilliant literary historian and theorist. With breathtaking sensitivity to the forces, conditions, and places in Jacobs’s life, Mitchell breathes new life—and brings deeper understanding and refreshing insight—into this classic narrative. Though it is over a century and a half old, through Mitchell’s keen critical lens, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains relevant and impactful. Black women’s lives and letters are in the very best of hands with Professor Koritha Mitchell.” — Imani Perry, Princeton University

“Koritha Mitchell’s exemplary edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is what happens when a Black feminist-activist sharpens her pencil today. Engaging with an expansive array of archival documents and current scholarship, Mitchell goes beyond excellent historicizing to deftly demonstrate how ‘[US] society doles out life chances according to identity.’ It’s the best edition I’ve seen to date, in large part because of Mitchell’s introduction.” — Joycelyn Moody, University of Texas San Antonio

“[This] edition of Harriet Jacobs’s (1813–97) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, edited by Koritha Mitchell, is not to be missed…. Mitchell’s edition, in its entirety, is akin to having a course in African American literature, women’s studies, and slavery at your fingertips.” — Amy Larrabee Cotz, American University, in Scholarly Editing

Koritha Mitchell has been a professor of English at The Ohio State University for eighteen years. She is the author of From Slave Cabins to the White House and Living with Lynching and editor of the Broadview Edition of Frances E. W. Harper’s 1892 novel Iola Leroy.