Harriet Jacobs In The Civil War

Harriet Jacobs lived a life that was voluntarily significant to the Civil War. Harriet experienced a very hard life starting in 1813. In this paper, I will be describing Harriet Jacobs’ life and the significance she had in the Civil War. I will be discussing a very strong woman that made a very big impact on this world. Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery on February 11th, 1813. Her mother’s name was Delilah and was the slave of Margaret Horniblow, while her father’s name was Daniel Jacobs and was the slave of Andrew Knox. Harriet was unaware that she was owned property until she was six years old. Although this was her life situation, she would make the best out of it. Harriet’s mother died when she was only six years old. This caused her

When she was eleven, both her and her brothers had been purchased by Dr. Norcom and were moved into the physician’s house. Her unhappiness is proven in this quote, “When we entered our new home we encountered cold looks, cold words, and cold treatment.” The new owner of Harriet was sexually victimizing her and this caused his wife to become very jealous and this tormented Harriet. Luckily Dr. Norcom was forbidden to marry a free black carpenter so this lead to Harriet entering into a union with Samuel Tredwell Sawyer. He was an unmarried lawyer and a future congressman. Harriet and Samuel later had a son named Joseph in 1829 and then a daughter named Louisa in 1833. Harriet soon moved to her grandmother’s house where unfortunately, Dr. Norcom continued to bother her throughout the years. Harriet still refused to be Dr. Norcom’s mistress so she was banished to his son’s plantation to work in his home. She knew that soon enough her children would join her to be brought up as slaves, so she began plotting her escape. She did this because if she were to escape, then the children would be lucky enough to remain with her grandmother so they would never experience the brutalities of