EDENTON—Recalling both the triumph and tragedy of a famous African-American family from Edenton, Historic Edenton State Historic Site will host the international premiere of “The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers” on Saturday, Nov. 22. Edited by Dr. Jean Fagan Yellin, “The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers” (University of North Carolina Press) will be presented to the world for the first time ever in a gala event featuring U.S. Colored Troops reenactors, a keynote speech and a book signing by Dr. Yellin, remarks by historians including Dr. Jeffrey Crow, author of “A History of African Americans in North Carolina,” a question-and-answer session and more.
The celebration will begin at 11 a.m. in the Chowan County Courthouse. Although this event is free and open to the public, because of limited space, advance reservations are required by calling (252) 482-2637.
Four U.S. Colored Troops reenactors representing the 35th and 37th U.S. Colored Infantry regiments will be stationed at the courthouse entrance and will act as a formal color guard during the festivities. During the Civil War, both the 35th and 37th regiments were recruited from eastern North Carolina. Battery B 2nd U.S. Colored Light Artillery will also participate in the program, with all reenactors dressed in period Federal uniforms and armed with muskets. Two period reproduction banners will be displayed, one a 35-star U.S. flag and the other the colors of the U.S. 18th Corps, a Union unit composed of five divisions stationed in North Carolina during the war.
Born in 1813 into a family of enslaved African-Americans living in Edenton, Harriet Jacobs became famous after publishing the autobiographical “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” in 1861. This book details how Jacobs hid for almost seven years in a tiny attic over her grandmother’s house in Edenton to prevent her white master from forcing himself on her. A woman of uncommon bravery and determination, Jacobs fled north to freedom in 1841.
Being only a step ahead of slave catchers hired by her master’s family, Jacobs published “Incidents” under a pseudonym, changing the names of the real people in her life, all of whom became characters in the book. Though most critics of the day dismissed the work as fiction, today it is heralded as the first book-length narrative by an ex-slave that reveals the unique brutalities women suffered under “the peculiar institution” (a euphemism white southerners often used to describe slavery, its implied message being that American slavery was somehow different from “harsher” slave systems in other countries).
Millions of African-American women were held in bondage over the 250 years slavery was legal in the United States but Jacobs is the only one known to have left a written account of her life. Though it was actually illegal to educate a slave in the South, Jacobs was taught to read and write as child, giving her a distinct advantage over most of her counterparts including Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, both of whom were illiterate.
After writing “Incidents,” she became an abolitionist and a relief worker during the Civil War and, following Reconstruction, an entrepreneur with elite boardinghouses in Cambridge, Mass., and Washington, D.C. Jacobs died in 1897 in Washington.
Her biographer, Dr. Yellin, emerita professor at New York’s Pace University, first became interested in the Jacobs family papers in the late 1980s. Editor of the most complete and comprehensive version of “Incidents” — published by Harvard University Press in 1987 — Dr. Yellin soon found herself studying and collecting the Jacobs family papers.
Besides Jacobs herself, this work brings to life such Jacobs family members as her grandmother Molly Horniblow; her children by Edenton lawyer Samuel Tredwell, Joseph and Louisa Jacobs; and her brave uncle Joseph Horniblow, who refused to let his spirit be broken by the whippings and imprisonments rebellious slaves like him suffered. Instead Joseph Horniblow fled from the community and the Jacobs family, never to be seen again. It also includes material on, among others, Harriet Jacobs’ first white owner Margaret Horniblow, who taught the little girl to read and write; Boston writer, reformer and philanthropist Ednah Dow Cheney, who worked with Harriet Jacobs on promoting women’s rights; and Julia Wilbur, a teacher and relief worker Jacobs met during the Civil War when the two women were helping freed slaves in Alexandria, Va.
The author or editor of 10 books, Dr. Yellin has devoted much of her professional life to bringing the fascinating story of Harriet Jacobs to light. A Pulitzer Prize nominee, Dr. Yellin is one of America’s most distinguished scholars of the literature of slavery. Her awards include the 2005 Frederick Douglass Book Prize, which Dr. Yellin received for the biography “Harriet Jacobs: A Life.” This book details the experiences of a courageous and resourceful woman who lived 29 years as a slave.
The letters and papers written by, for and about Jacobs and her activist brother and daughter in “The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers” give thousands of readers of “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” — from scholars to schoolchildren — a rich historical background for Jacobs’ struggles against slavery, racism and sexism. “The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers” is a crucial jumping-off point for future scholarship on this unique woman’s life and times. A recent podcast interview with Dr. Yellin is available at www.ncculture.com.
Highlighting 18th- and early 19th-century history, as North Carolina’s second oldest town Edenton was one of the fledgling nation’s chief political, cultural and commercial centers. The state’s first colonial capital, it was established in the late 17th century. Once the state’s second largest port, Edenton provided slaves with a means of escape via the Maritime Underground Railroad before Emancipation. Today it features an extensive historic district with architectural styles spanning 250 years, such as the 1767 Chowan County Courthouse, a national historic landmark.
Standing in front of Historic Edenton’s visitor center is a highway historical marker on Jacobs; inside, visitors can see an exhibit on this famous writer, abolitionist and humanitarian. Here a self-guided walking tour brochure is also available for $1, enabling history buffs to walk in Jacobs’ footsteps through the town of Edenton.
Located at 108 North Broad St. in Edenton, Historic Edenton is open Monday-Saturday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday from 1-4 p.m. It is closed most major state holidays from November through March but open from April through October. The mission of Historic Edenton is to preserve and interpret the history of Edenton, the first capital of colonial North Carolina. For more information on Historic Edenton and this program call 252-482-2637 or go to http://www.nchistoricsites.org/iredell/iredell.htm.
Administered by the Division of State Historic Sites, Historic Edenton is part of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. Join the Cultural Resources 2008 theme observance of “Telling Our Stories.” For more information, visit www.ncculture.com.