Harriet Ann Jacobs was born as a slave and was raised in North Carolina as a slave. At the begging of her life, she was owned by her grandmother's master's daughter, who was a very kind and loving woman. She treated her and her brother with great care and rarely made them do work that they didn't want to do. After a couple of years however, the kind master died, and she was transferred to a 5 year old girl. However, because the girl wasn't "mature enough to handle the gift." so she was given to her father, Dr. Norcom. Norcom tried throughout her adolescence to make sexual advances on her, but refusing to be raped by Dr. Norcom, she took on a a relationship with Samuel Tredwell Sawyer, a lawyer and future congressman. Through this relationship, two children were produced. Joseph in 1829, and Louisa in 1833. She much desired to run away with her children, but it was extremely risky, so while the children were in the good care of her grandmother, Jacobs was in a attic crawlspace for about 7 years, still being with the children by seeing them through a crack in the window. As her plan of escape, she secretly took a ferry to Philadelphia. From there, she took a train to New York where she became a writer. Writing most of her book in Rochester.
