The United States Postal Service is releasing today a series of stamps honoring “10 of the heroes of the Underground Railroad,” a network of activists who helped 19th-century African Americans obtain freedom when keeping human beings and their descendants enslaved for life was the law of the land. The 10 people being commemorated are Harriet Tubman, William Still, Thomas Garrett, Laura Haviland, the Rev. Jermain Loguen, Catharine Coffin, Lewis Hayden, William Lambert, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs.
“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” left an indelible mark on American literature.
As a professor who has studied Jacobs’ life and edited the 2023 edition of her autobiography, I find it especially appropriate that she, who wrote the first book-length memoir by a formerly enslaved African American woman, is one of the 10 people featured in the “Underground Railroad” series. It’s especially fitting because USPS’ representation of the Underground Railroad’s collective and communal character aligns with how Jacobs lived her life and how she wrote “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” a book that left an indelible mark on American literature.
At a time when the accurate teaching of history is under attack, when acknowledging a range of lived experiences gets mocked as “woke,” and when some politicians suggest the U.S. has never been a racist country, it’s heartening to see the USPS highlighting Americans who saw the evil of racism and fought against it. At a time when women feel less autonomy over their bodies, it’s particularly gratifying to see the USPS series feature Jacobs — who went to remarkable lengths to assert autonomy over hers.
Despite laws that made literacy illegal for the enslaved, Frederick Douglass made a point to emphasize that his 1845 autobiography, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” was “written by himself.” Following suit, Jacobs declared her 1861 story to be “written by herself,”…
Read the full article here
