Published in 1861, Harriet Jacobs's "e;Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl"e; was one of the first of the personal slave narratives. At the time this book was first published Harriet Jacobs was living as an escaped slave in the North, a precarious position given the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Originally published under the pseudonym Linda Brent, "e;Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl"e; is a gripping first hand account of the brutality endured by slaves and one of the few ever written by a woman.