One of the first enslaved women to write her own story, Jacobs exposed not only the physical violence but also the moral degradation inherent in slavery. She revealed the particular ways enslavement affected girls and women and showed how racism and misogyny intersected to shape the experiences and choices of enslaved women. Like most slavery narratives, her story is also one of movement and travel. From a young age Jacobs was sent from one home to another at the whims of those who owned her. She took ships and trains to make her way from a slave state to a free state. After she escaped slavery, she frequently moved around to avoid capture, find work, and be with her family.
Here are some of the places she lived and went.
1. Horniblow’s Tavern (1813–19)
Born into slavery in February 1813, Harriet Jacobs lived with her family in an outbuilding behind an inn called Horniblow’s Tavern in Edenton, North Carolina. The Horniblows were a prominent Edenton family; their tavern boasted the town’s best restaurant, serving all local and visiting dignitaries, including President James Monroe in 1819. Jacobs’ grandmother Molly, known for her cooking and baking, likely helped prepare food for the president’s meal. John and Elizabeth Horniblow owned Molly, and gifted their invalid daughter Margaret one of Molly’s daughters, Delilah. She was Jacobs’ mother.
Jacobs writes in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl that her family “lived together in a comfortable home; and, though we were all slaves, I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them for safekeeping, and liable to be demanded of them at any moment.”
The tavern was sometimes the site of slave auctions, where a young Jacobs witnessed the sale of close family members.
2. Margaret Horniblow’s Home (1819–July 3, 1825)
After her mother Delilah’s death in 1819, Jacobs was put in the direct care of Margaret Horniblow, the young woman who owned her. Horniblow taught Jacobs how to sew—and how to read and write. These skills would have a significant impact on Jacobs’ future life.
