Prof. Yellin has not only brought to life a remarkable woman whose daughter could have 'passed,' but chose not to. Yellin has brought to light, through the life of Harriet Jacobs a series of community connections from the Deep South to Boston which were created and used to help people in the most desperate of circumstances during the overcrowded wartime Federal City. ( )

Prof. Yellin has not only brought to life a remarkable woman whose daughter could have 'passed,' but chose not to. Yellin has brought to light, through the life of Harriet Jacobs a series of community connections from the Deep South to Boston which were created and used to help people in the most desperate of circumstances during the overcrowded wartime Federal City. ( )

Prof. Yellin has not only brought to life a remarkable woman whose daughter could have 'passed,' but chose not to. Yellin has brought to light, through the life of Harriet Jacobs a series of community connections from the Deep South to Boston which were created and used to help people in the most desperate of circumstances during the overcrowded wartime Federal City. ( )

I am working on a project concerning black women in 19th century upstate New York and some of the other books I was reading kept mentioning Harriet Jacobs. So I thought I should read something about Jacobs and this biography looked easier to read (in 20th century English instead of 19th century English) than Jacobs' own book [b:Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl|152519|Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl |Harriet Jacobs|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328866399s/152519.jpg|330710].

This book was interesting and it is not written in that academic I-just-got-them-to-publish-my-thesis-with-a-pretty-picture-on-the-cover style that puts me to sleep.

It was surprising to find out that there was a school up here in Clinton, NY, Kellogg Academy, that enrolled both black and white boys and girls in the 1830's and 40's. But conditions got a lot worse before they got better. I remember somebody mentioning the Missouri Compromise of 1850 in school but I never actually understood the negative impact that it had on ordinary people in upstate NY. Now I'll remember something about Millard Fillmore. ( )