Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, July 7,, 1853, Harriet Jacobs is planning to write her memoir.

Over the previous month in this summer of 1853, Jacobs had written her first published work,

which was a letter to the New York Tribune in response to an article by former first lady Julia Tyler called the Women of England versus the Women of America and

Jacobs is sort of finding her voice in this letter and many many

many years later Harriet Jacobs biographer would say that quote when that letter

was printed an author was born.

So that's the moment we're marking here,

the birth of an author.

Jacobs was encouraged to write more letters

throughout 1853, soon decided to be a writer

and write her memoirs.

Those memoirs, which would be published five years later or so would become

incidents in the life of a slave girl. So yes, Jacobs was not just a budding talented author,

but she was also a woman who had just recently gained her freedom after a life of enslavement,

and her autobiography would become hugely influential in the abolitionist movement,

painting a picture not just of slavery, but of womanhood and broaching topics that for a long time

hadn't been discussed and were considered off limits in the conversation around slavery.

So let's paint the picture of Harry Jacob's life as a formerly enslaved person, also an author, and her work, the incidents in the life of a slave girl.

Here to do that, as always, are Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.

Hello there.

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