Jacobs's account of this event confirms Yellin's portrayal of her as confident in her own sense of worth and expectant that others should treat her with the dignity afforded to white people. She claims in Incidents, 'finding I was resolved to stand up for my rights, they concluded to treat me well' (637). Jacobs's stubborn refusal to follow convention met with success: she was finally admitted to eat in the dining room. She recounts, for instance, an occasion during her trip to Saratoga during which she refused to comply with a hotel's policy that Negroes eat in the kitchen instead of in the main dining room.

(1) It seems that in some cases, however, Jacobs resisted the customs of northern society that treated her as a lesser citizen. She had been the victim of much ill treatment in the North, as she describes in her memoir, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). Jacobs had now lived in the North for nineteen years and knew well the prejudices of even many abolitionists toward blacks. In this letter, Jacobs expresses her despair and fury at the Supreme Court's recent decision of the Dred Scott case, which declared that no slave or descendant of a slave could become a United States citizen. Man is following the evil devices of his own heart-for he is not willing even to acknowledge us made in Gods own Image-have not the decision of the last few days-in Washington-decided this for us-I see nothing for the Black Man-to look forward toy-but to forget his old Motto-and learn a new one his long patient hope-must be might-and Strength Liberty-or-Death-Īccording to Jean Fagan Yellin's recent biography, Harriet Jacobs penned the above lines and sent them in a letter to Amy Post in March of 1857 (135).

Frederick douglass and harriet jacobs