Harriet Jacobs Wikimedia commons

A tribute to Harriet Jacobs

March is Women’s History Month. Sandwiched between Black History Month (February) and Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April), March is devoted to recognizing and paying tribute to women who, by their sacrifice and accomplishments, helped to shape our history. With this in mind, I searched for someone who would fit both profiles and came up with Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl.

Introduction to slavery

Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in 1813, but as a young child she was unaware she was a slave because her masters treated her kindly and taught her to read and write. It was only when she was bequeathed to new owners, that Harriet experienced cruelty and sexual exploitation. Her new master Dr. Flint tried to force her into a sexual relationship, but she resisted him and instead consented to a relationship with a white neighbor in the hope of being protected from Dr. Flint. Harriet bore two children and, in order to escape Dr. Flint and protect her children, hid in her grandmother’s cabin. It would be seven years before she escaped to New York where she reunited with her daughter in Brooklyn.

Harriet’s writing journey

Harriet began publishing her book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in serial form in the New York Tribune, but her accounts of sexual abuse were considered too shocking for readers at that time and so the publication ended. Phillips and Samson, a Boston publishing house, offered to publish the manuscript in book form if Harriet could get either Nathaniel Parker Willis, writer and publisher, or Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist author, to write a preface. This didn’t work out and eventually abolitionist Lydia Maria Child agreed. Child also edited the book. In 1861, Harriet published Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl under the pseudonym Linda Brent, using fictitious names in the book to protect herself and her family.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Wikimedia Commons

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was a groundbreaking work at that time as it highlighted the cruelties of slavery and sexual assault against women. More than a century later, the contents of this book still resonate with women everywhere as we grapple with the increased incidents of sexual assault, separation of families and racial inequality in our society. I recommend this book as a gripping and sobering read for Women’s History Month.

When I began writing Coming Out of Egypt sixteen years ago, I never dreamed that sexual assault, the book’s subject matter, would be so much in the news today. But it is, and women from all walks of life are coming forward to tell their stories and they are inspiring others to do so. Does that mean that sexual assault will go away completely? I don’t thinks so, but it may deter some would-be perpetrators from carrying out these vicious acts.

Coming Out of Egypt is set in the 1980s, a time when such things were only whispered about. The protagonist is seventeen-year-old Marva who, along with her younger sister June, was sexually abused by their father. As with most sexual assault victims, the girls were too ashamed to tell anyone what they were being subjected to. One night, unable to take it anymore, Marva killed her father. This is where the story begins.

I am still amazed at the timeliness of this story and I think you will be too. Also, the psychological traits displayed by sexual abuse victims are well portrayed in these characters. But despite the disturbing subject matter, there is much light-hearted content to balance those agonizing moments:

June and her penchant for attracting boys; the passionate romance between Cicely and David; the vivid descriptions of the exotic setting and most of all, the redemptive message that unfolds as a flower (according to one reviewer) throughout the book.

Here is what some reviewers are saying about Coming Out of Egypt:

Solid book. Well written. Important topic. Engaging characters – CM

Coming Out of Egypt is a story of survival that grips your attention from beginning to end.- Eunice Matchett

The story of abuse in any form is hard to read, but more, when it is incest by a trusted parent. Who do you turn to when there is no one to turn to when a relationship goes wrong? God! This story shows what it looks like when the trust in a relationship is gone and there is no one to whom you can turn. Through many different relationships and through many different eyes we see how this walk looks and possibly feels. We are never alone or forsaken. – Titagee

If you would like to judge for yourself if what these readers said is true, why don’t you get a copy for yourself? Just click on the image below.