Louisa Matilda Jacobs

{{Short description|African-American abolitionist (1833–1917)}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Louisa Matilda Jacobs | image = Louisa Matilda Jacobs.jpg | alt =  | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{Birth date|1833|10|19}} | birth_place = Edenton, North Carolina | death_date = {{Death date and age|1917|4|5|1833|10|19}} | death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts | other_names = | occupation = Abolitionist, civil rights activist, educator, author | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | mother = Harriet Jacobs | father = Samuel Tredwell Sawyer | relatives = John S. Jacobs (uncle) }} '''Louisa Matilda Jacobs''' (October 19, 1833 – April 5, 1917) was an African-American abolitionist and civil rights activist and the daughter of famed escaped slave and author, Harriet Jacobs. Along with her activism, she also worked as a teacher in Freedmen's Schools in the South, and as a matron at Howard University.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Harriet Jacobs family papers|author=Jacobs, Harriet Ann|date=2008|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0807831311|oclc=833248720}}</ref>

== Early life == thumb|256x256px|Louisa's mother, Harriet Jacobs|alt=|left Jacobs was born in Edenton, North Carolina on October 19, 1833,<ref>{{cite web|title=Picture of her tombstone|url=https://mountauburn.org/wp-content/uploads/Jacobs_Lot-4389-1.jpg}}</ref><ref name="Whispers" />{{rp|70}} to Samuel Tredwell Sawyer (a congressman and newspaper editor) and his mistress Harriet Jacobs, at a time when Harriet was enslaved by Dr. James Norcom.<ref name="Whispers">{{Cite book|title=Whispers of Cruel Wrongs |last=Maillard|first=Mary|date=2017|publisher=University of Wisconsin PR|isbn=9780299311834|oclc=1058559452}}</ref> Louisa also had an older brother, Joseph Jacobs, born in 1829.<ref name=":0" /> Harriet Jacobs had been sexually harassed by Norcom for many years, but she continually refused his advances and mistakenly hoped that her relationship with Sawyer would be a deterrent to Norcom.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Incidents in the life of a slave girl: seven years concealed|last=Jacobs|first=Harriet A.|date=2008|publisher=Floating Press|isbn=9781775411833|oclc=593831171}}</ref> As Harriet continued to refuse Norcom's advances, Norcom began to threaten her children in anticipation of coercing Harriet into a sexual relationship, and she became increasingly fearful for them.<ref name=":3" />

When Louisa was two years old, Harriet decided to escape, in hopes that Norcom would sell Louisa and Joseph into a safer situation.<ref name="Whispers" /> Harriet's hopes proved correct when their father, Sawyer, purchased the children from Norcom and sent Louisa to live with her great-grandmother, Molly, then taking her to Washington, D.C., before sending her to live with a cousin in Brooklyn, New York.<ref name=":0" /> Harriet located Louisa in Brooklyn and fled to Boston with her.<ref name=":0" />

== Career and activism ==

=== Education === While in Boston, Jacobs was educated at home; she afterwards attended the Young Ladies' Domestic Seminary in Clinton, New York.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mountauburn.org/aaht-jacobs/|title=African American Heritage Trail – Harriet, John & Louisa Jacobs {{!}} Mount Auburn Cemetery|website=mountauburn.org|language=en-US|access-date=November 26, 2018}}</ref> She later obtained training to become a teacher in Boston.<ref name="Whispers" />

=== Activism === Jacobs's mother Harriet became acquainted with Amy Post and her feminist abolitionist circle while Louisa was studying in Clinton, leading to both Harriet and Louisa becoming involved in the movement.<ref name=":0" /> Louisa divided her time between living with the family of Zenas Brockett, a white abolitionist, and helping her mother in the Willis family home.<ref name="blackpast">{{Cite web|url=https://blackpast.org/aah/louisa-matilda-jacobs-1833-1917|title=Jacobs, Louisa Matilda (1833–1917) {{!}} The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed|website=blackpast.org|date=August 24, 2015|language=en|access-date=November 25, 2018}}</ref> She also spoke about women's suffrage on an American Equal Rights Association lecture tour through New York state in 1867 which included other activists such as Susan B. Anthony and Charles Lenox Remond.<ref name="Whispers" />

=== Career === thumb|The Jacobs Free School In 1863, Jacobs and her mother founded Jacobs Free School, a freedmen's school in Alexandria, Virginia, putting her teaching education to use by educating Black children who had been freed from slavery.<ref name="blackpast" /> The school grew quickly, requiring a second teacher to be hired within just a few months of opening.<ref name=":0" /> Three years later, she moved to Savannah, Georgia with her mother and founded a new freedmen's school, which Louisa chose to name Lincoln School.<ref name=":0" />

Following her teaching career Jacobs established a boarding house in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her mother, where they worked and lived side by side, with Jacobs taking on most of the responsibility in later years as she also cared for her ailing mother.<ref name=":0" /> Following her mother's death, Jacobs worked as matron of the National Home for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children, then accepted a matron position at Howard University before retiring at 75 years of age due to a heart condition.<ref name="Whispers" /> She spent most of her remaining years with the Willis family, who had become like family during her mother's tenure with them.<ref name="Whispers" />

=== Literary works and memoirs ===

* ''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'' by Harriet Jacobs - In Harriet's popular memoir of life as an enslaved woman, the early years of Louisa's life are included under the pseudonym 'Ellen.' * ''The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers'' edited by Jean Fagan Yellin - A collection of important documents and correspondence regarding Harriet and her family, including correspondence belonging to Louisa and documents such as a report of her school in Savannah, and her final will. * ''Whispers of Cruel Wrongs: The Correspondence of Louisa Jacobs and Her Circle, 1879-1911'' edited by Mary Maillard - A collection of letters between Louisa and many acquaintances.

thumb|Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts|280x280px

== Later life and death == Jacobs suffered from a heart condition and her health deteriorated following several years of being a full time nurse to her ailing mother.<ref name="Whispers" /> She died on April 5, 1917, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she was buried alongside her mother in the family plot of the Mount Auburn Cemetery.<ref name=":0" />

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == * [https://gloverparkhistory.com/estates-and-farms/burleith/the-colored-home/ National Home] * [https://mountauburn.org/aaht-jacobs/ Short biography by Friends of Mount Auburn, including pictures of the tombstones of Harriet, John and Louisa Jacobs]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Louisa Matilda}} Category:19th-century African-American educators Category:19th-century American women educators Category:African-American women educators Category:Schoolteachers from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Schoolteachers from Virginia Category:Founders of American schools and colleges Category:African-American founders Category:African-American abolitionists Category:American women abolitionists Category:Abolitionists from New York (state) Category:People enslaved in North Carolina Category:People from Edenton, North Carolina Category:19th-century African-American women Category:20th-century African-American women Category:20th-century African-American educators Category:1833 births Category:1917 deaths