Harriet Ann Jacobs was an African-American abolitionist and writer, best known for her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent. This work is now considered an "American classic."

Born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina, she was subjected to sexual harassment by her enslaver. When her enslaver threatened to sell her children if she did not submit to his desires, Jacobs hid in a tiny crawl space under the roof of her grandmother's house for seven years, during which she could not stand up. After her escape to the free North, she was reunited with her children, Joseph and Louisa Matilda, and her brother, John S. Jacobs. She worked as a nanny and engaged with abolitionist and feminist reformers. Even in New York City, her freedom remained precarious until her employer paid for her legal release.

During and after the American Civil War, Jacobs traveled to Union-occupied parts of the Confederate South with her daughter, organizing aid and founding two schools for fugitive and freed slaves.