"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the first full-length narrative written by a former woman slave in America. It tells the story of Harriet Jacobs's early life as a slave in North Carolina; her fugitive years in New York, Boston, and Rochester, where she became an abolition activist; and her struggle for freedom, hard won in 1852. This text is a reprint of the 1861 first edition, with explanatory annotations and an introduction by Nellie Y. McKay and Frances Smith Foster." ""Contexts" includes contemporary responses to Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by William C. Nell and Lydia Maria Child, among others; twelve related letters and articles by Jacobs published in newspapers during the period from 1853 to 1868; and documents tracing Jacobs's life and achievements as a free woman, including her establishment of a school in Alexandria, Virginia." ""Criticism" collects eleven important assessments of the work by Jean Fagan Yellin, Ann Taves, Valerie Smith, Nellie Y. McKay, Harryette Mullen, Michelle Burnham, Nell Irvin Painter, Frances Smith Foster, Sandra Gunning, Elizabeth V. Spelman, and Christina Accomando." "A chronology and selected bibliography are also included."--Jacket.