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Harriet Ann Jacobs (1813 - 1897)

Harriet  Ann Jacobs, daughter of Delilah, a slave, and Daniel Jacobs, a slave who was born in Edenton, North Carolina, on February 11, 1813.  Until she was six years old Harriet was unaware that she was the property of Margaret Horniblow. Before her death in 1825, Harriet's relatively kind mistress taught her slave to read and sew. In her will, Margaret Horniblow bequeathed eleven-year-old Harriet to a niece, Mary Matilda Norcom. Since Mary Norcom was only three years old when Harriet Jacobs became her slave, Mary's father, Dr. James Norcom, an Edenton physician, became Jacobs's de facto master. Under the regime of James and Maria Norcom, Jacobs was introduced to the harsh realities of slavery. Though barely a teenager, Jacobs soon realized that her master was a sexual threat. Around the time Harriet turned 15, Norcom began his relentless efforts to bend the slave girl's will. To get Harriet away from his wife, who was suspicious of her husband's intentions, he...

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (born Mary Jane McLeod; July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955)

Mary Jane McLeod was born in 1875 in a small log cabin near  Mayesville, South Carolina , on a rice and cotton farm in  Sumter County . She was the fifteenth of seventeen children born to Sam and Patsy (McIntosh) McLeod, both former slaves.   Most of her siblings had been born into slavery. Her mother worked for her former master, and her father farmed cotton near a large house they called "The Homestead." Her parents wanted to be independent so had sacrificed to buy a farm for the family. As a child, Mary would accompany her mother to deliver "white people’s" wash. Allowed to go into the white children’s nursery, Mary became fascinated with their toys. One day she picked up a book and as she opened it, a white child took it away from her, saying she didn’t know how to read. Mary decided then that the only difference between white and colored people was the ability to read and write. She was inspired to learn. McLeod attended Mayesville's one-room bl...

Dutty Boukman

(died November 1791)  Dutty Boukman  was a  Jamaican -born  Haitian  slave who was one of the most visible early leaders of the  Haitian Revolution . According to some contemporary accounts, Boukman may have conducted a religious ceremony in which a freedom covenant was affirmed;  this ceremony would have been a catalyst to the slave uprising that marked the beginning of the  Haïtian Revolution . Dutty Boukman may have been a self-educated slave born on the island of  Jamaica . Some sources indicate that he was later sold by his British master to a French  plantation  owner after he attempted to teach other Jamaican slaves to read, who put him to work as a  commandeur  (slave driver) and, later, a coach driver. His French name came from his English  nickname ,  "Book Man,"  which some scholars, despite accounts suggesting that he was a Vodou  houngan , have interpreted as meaning that he may have ...