Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina in 1813. Using the pseudonym Linda Brent she wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl detailing her life of slavery and most particularly the sexual harassment she faced from her 'owner'. Once published, in 1861, her account helped raise support in the north for emancipation.

She escaped slavery and went into hiding for nearly seven years, eventually travelling north where she worked with a group of feminists opposed to slavery. She was given her freedom by sympathetic friends in 1852, but only after they bought her from her former owners. She worked as a nurse and a teacher and carried out relief work in the South. She was actively involved in the National Association of Coloured Women in the year leading up to her death in 1897.

• http://www.ncwriters.org/hjacobs.htm
• http://www.nagasaki-gaigo.ac.jp/ishikawa/amlit/j/jacobs_h19ro.htm