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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
September 10, 2023 @ 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm EDT
The Baton Foundation will host a lecture about the first book-length autobiography by a formerly enslaved Black woman. This program is free to the public, but registration is required.
About the Program
Koritha Mitchell’s edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is no ordinary edition. Besides faithfully reproducing Harriet Jacobs’ 1861 narrative, it adds extensive explanatory footnotes and a thorough introduction. The volume also offers six appendices with historical and cultural documents that help readers appreciate the immensity of Jacobs’ achievement. Mitchell will share what she learned from editing this extraordinary text, the first book-length autobiography by a formerly enslaved African American woman.
About the Book
In 1861, Harriet Jacobs became the first formerly enslaved African American woman to publish a book-length account of her life. In crafting her coming-of-age story, she insisted upon biographical accuracy and bold creativity—telling the truth while giving herself and others fictionalized names. She also adapted conventions from two other popular genres: the sentimental novel and the slave narrative. Then, despite facing obstacles not encountered by White women and Black men, she orchestrated the book’s publication and became a traveling bookseller in an effort to inspire passive Americans to support the abolition of slavery.
Engaging with the latest research on Jacobs’ life and work, this edition helps readers to understand the magnitude of her achievement in writing, publishing, and distributing her life story. However, it also shows how this monumental accomplishment was only the beginning of her contributions, given her advocacy work over the nearly forty years that she lived after its publication. As a survivor of sexual abuse who became an advocate, Jacobs laid a foundation for activist movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. The six appendices featured in this edition, place at readers’ fingertips resources that further illuminate the issues raised by Jacobs’ remarkable life and legacy.
About the Editor
Koritha Mitchell (she/her + Koritha rhymes with Aretha) is an award-winning author, literary historian, cultural critic, and professional development expert. Her research focuses on African America literature as well as violence in United States history and contemporary culture. She examines how texts, both written and performed, help targeted families and communities survive and thrive.
Her first book, Living with Lynching, won awards from the American Theatre and Drama Society and from the Society for the Study of American Women Writers. Her second monograph, From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture, appeared in August 2020 and was named a Best Book of 2020 by Ms. Magazine and Black Perspectives. Professor Mitchell edited Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), the first book-length autobiography by a formerly enslaved African American woman, and Frances E.W. Harper’s 1892 novel Iola Leroy. Her scholarly articles include “James Baldwin, Performance Theorist, Sings the Blues for Mister Charlie,” published by American Quarterly, and “Love in Action,” which appeared in Callaloo and identifies similarities between lynching and violence against LGBTQ communities.
Currently a professor of English at Ohio State University, Koritha grew up in Sugar Land, Texas (near Houston); earned her BA from Ohio Wesleyan University; and earned her MA and PhD at the University of Maryland-College Park.
In 2011, Koritha founded the Columbus, Ohio, chapter of Black Girls RUN!, a national organization encouraging women to make fitness and healthy living a priority. She stepped down from leadership in 2014 and remains proud that the chapter is still going strong. On Twitter, she’s @ProfKori.