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Her Reading Room brought many "big name" abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass, who gave one of his most famous speeches, What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth July.
Harriet Jacobs engaged in other forms of service. She was a nurse for Black Soldiers during the civil war, and aiding Black refugees in Washington D.C., Savannah, GA, and Edenton, NC. |
Incidents in the Life of s Slave Girl is what Harriet Jacobs most widely known for, but beyond those inked pages, she gave speeches and lectures that opposed the institution of slaves.
Her most significant activity was working in an Anti-Slavery Reading Room in Rochester, NY. Many abolitionists gathered to read their pieces, excerpts from their narratives, and generally invite the population to come and hear their voices out. The passing of the Fugitive Slave Act, unfortunately, forced her to start using a Pseudonym to continue her cause undetected. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable—and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight." |
Harriet Jacob stance against slavery was due to moral and social convictions she held, however, her initiative to help slaves and speak out against Slavery. Laws did not deter her cause, and she often broke them for a higher purpose than her preservation.
We can fully understand the magnitude of her work by examining her most famous piece
We can fully understand the magnitude of her work by examining her most famous piece