I received the book Black Designers in American Fashion edited by Elizabeth Way, https://amzn.to/3viLKrh I love finding out how the powerful the needle has been through out history for African Americans. Harriet Jacobs was new to me. She was an escaped slave, seamstress, author, and abolitionist. Her book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861, gives her account of being enslaved and the escape through freedom.
Here is a portion of the ad for capture :
Being a good seamstress, she has been accustomed to dress well, has a variety of very fine clothes, made in the prevailing fashion, and will probably appear, if abroad, tricked out in gay and fashionable finery. As this girl absconded from the plantation of my son without any known cause or provocation, it is probable she designs to transport herself to the North. She used her talents to get to freedom.
Harriet Jacobs book: https://amzn.to/3FSOuApPlease note, I found the book with various covers and I am concluding they are all the same book.
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