Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) was an African-American writer who escaped from slavery and was later freed. She became an abolitionist and reformer. Jacobs wrote an autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent. It was a reworking of the genres of slave narrative and sentimental novel, and was one of the first books to address the struggle for freedom by female slaves, explore their struggles with sexual harassment and abuse and their effort to protect their roles as women and mothers.