"Slave Girl"

This story is set in the 1840's and varies in location from North Carolina to New York. The narrator, Harriet Jacobs, is 28 years old slave and has 2 children. The father of the children, Samuel Sawyer, is white. Harriet tries to escape to the north but has a long, hard journey in front of her. Samuel Sawyer promises to emancipate the children, a promise that he would not keep. During Harriet's struggle to make it to New York, only the thought of her seeing her children could comfort her. The zeal that Harriet showed to escape the South is incredible. When she arrived in Brooklyin, June of 1842, she was surprised to see many people she recognized. One person she did not recognize, however, was her daughter Louisa. The mother and daughter were finally reunited and could not have happier. Harriet immediately started to look for work. Though finding a job proved difficult, she eventually interviewed with Mary Willis who hired her on the spot. The two immediately bonded and became more than mere employer and employee but rather friends. During all of this Dr. Norcome never stopped looking for Harriet and after his death a family member was sent to Brooklyn to bring Harriet back to North Carolina. All of Harriet's efforts to escape proved only to exacerbate the Norcomes. Obviously Harriet and Mrs. Willis were scared because little did they know that this was the precursor to Harriet's freedom. Mary Willis was not willing to see this happen so she talked Harriet into going to Boston. After much harassment from the Norcomes as to where Harriet was, Mary Willis decided to purchase Harriet's freedom from the Norcomes. Then finally one day Harriet opened a letter from Mrs. Willis and a bill of sell fell out of the envelope. Harriet was finally free. She returned to Brooklyn a free woman and eventually even went back to North Carolina and visited her Grandmother's house. She explained at the end that she wrote her story so no one could ever assert that it never happened.