Oconee Democrats' February book

From: Pat Priest ppriest@charter.net
Date: February 6, 2011 8:33:35 AM EST
To: Oconee County Democrats oconee@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [oconee] Oconee Democrats' February book

Here's what we're reading this month: Harriet Jacobs' autobiography,
"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."

Please read more about the book below and pass the information along to
anyone you know who might be interested.

Join us sometime!

Pat Priest
Member,
Oconee Democrats

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February 23rd at 7 PM

The community book group sponsored by the Oconee Democrats will discuss
the poignant "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Jacobs
for its February book.

Initially using only the pseudonym "Linda," Jacobs was the first black woman to publish her own story of her life as a slave.  Frederick Douglass' more famous memoir was published in 1845; hers came out in 1861, the year the Civil War began.  She grappled with different issues (such as sexual assault and motherhood), but she also widened the focus of the narrative of her long and rocky path to freedom by encompassing the role of communities working together to help escaped slaves.

Jacobs became an advocate for slaves emancipated by President Lincoln, co-founding a school with her daughter in Alexandria, Virginia and, after the war, working to educate and provide housing for former slaves
in Savannah.

Jacobs' story includes incredible aspects -- several years of hiding in an attic crawlspace -- that caused some people to doubt her story. Others questioned the veracity because they found it hard to believe that a former slave could pen such a story, or they believed that the
treatment of slaves was not as horrible as Jacobs described.

But scholars have found material evidence that backs up Jacobs' memoir that includes information of the floor plan of the house where she hid and materials such as a bill of sale and a flier that declared her a runaway.

Descriptions in the book about sexual assault seemed unlikely to be true to readers at that time because of societal prohibitions against such revelations.  But Jacobs said she wrote the book because she felt that Northerners needed to awaken to conditions in the south so that they would not send captured slaves back to their owners.  She wrote, "Only by experience can any one realize how deep, and dark, and foul is that pit of abominations."

The book group's founder, Pat Priest, said, "We wanted to read more about slavery for Black History month and also learn more about the run-up to the Civil War, as this year marks the 150th anniversary of the war's inception."

The group meets the last Wednesday of each month at the Taco Stand in the Publix Shopping Center on Highway 53 in Watkinsville.  Participants assemble at 7 to chat and order dinner, with the discussion getting underway around 7:15.  Adults and teens from any county and of any political leanings are invited to drop in anytime to discuss thetopic and book.  For more information, contact Pat Priest
(patricia.priest@yahoo.com).
























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