Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Harriet Jacobs
Suggested Teaching Ideas & Resources
Websites, Books, and Video
Cassanello, Robert. “Using Runaway Slave Advertisements to Teach Historical Thinking.” OAH Magazine of History. April 2007. Organization of American Historians. Available at:
Robert Cassanello provides a lesson plan for use with the University of Virginia database, “Runaway Slave Advertisements from 18th Century Virginia Newspapers.” Cassanello guides students to examine a number of runaway slave advertisements and provides questions and observations to stimulate students’ critical thinking and observations.
Costa, Thomas, Ed. “Runaway Slave Advertisements from 18th Century Virginia Newspapers.” History Department, University of Virginia. Available at:
This database contains digital images and translations of runaway slave advertisements. Transcripts of runaway slave advertisements from the 1840s - 1850s from Baltimore County, Maryland can be found at:
"Harriet Jacobs.”Africans in America. PBS. Available at:
This selection from the Africans in America website contains a biography of Harriet Jacobs and links to documents including the runaway slave advertisement for Harriet, excerpts from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and a letter from Harriet Jacobs.
“Harriet Jacobs Selected Writings and Correspondence.” Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolitionat YaleUniversity. Available at:
This website is a companion to Jean Fagan Yellin’s book Harriet Jacobs: A Life. The site contains many primary source documents related to Harriet Jacobs’ biography, including the “Advertisement for the Capture of Harriet Jacobs.” It also includes numerous selections from Harriet’s writings after she obtained her freedom.
“North American Slave Narratives.” Documenting the American South. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Available at:
This extraordinary database contains the full-text of over 100 published slave narratives. Click on the link under each name to access the entire slave narrative. Summaries are available for many titles.
“Professor Sheds Light on Harriet Jacobs’ Path to Freedom.”Tell Me More. National Public Radio. January 7, 2008. Available at:
Click on “Listen Now” to hear an interview with Jean Fagan Yellin, author of Harriet Jacobs: A Life. In this 14 minute clip from NPR, Jean Fagan Yellin discusses Harriet Jacobs’ story, including her life after being freed. Professor Fagan Yellin also discusses why many people may have questioned the authenticity of Jacobs’ story.
Schoales, Gary Parker. Justice and Dissent: Ready to Use Materials for Recreating Five Great Trials in American History. West Nyack, New York: The Center for Applied Research in Education, 1995.
This book for educators provides resource materials, primary sources, and instructions for recreating historical trials related to Colonial America, the American Revolution, Slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Cold War. The Trial of Simeon Bushnell for Violation of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 includes background material, excerpts from primary sources, information for witnesses, and teacher instructions.
Slavery and the Making of America. Dir. William R. Grant. DVD. Thirteen/WNET New York, 2005.
This documentary series uses reenactments, photographs, images, and historians to relate the story of African Americans in America from the Colonial Period to Reconstruction. Volume 3: Seeds of Destruction looks at the period from 1800 to the start of the Civil War. With a strong focus on the story of Harriet Jacobs, this documentary examines her life in slavery, her escape, hiding, and eventual freedom.
Yellin, Jean Fagan. Harriet Jacobs: A Life. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2004.
In this award winning biography, Jean Fagan Yellin provides a detailed historical context for Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Jean Fagan Yellin also continues Jacobs’ story from where Incidents left off, examining Jacobs’ life and accomplishments as a free African American.