A thank-you to my Irish friends, Myra and Niall Horgan, for their assistance with Owen’s dialogue. Thanks also to Lauren F. Winner for her wise suggestions, and to Ann J. Lane, who long ago pointed out the special difficulties of escape for enslaved mothers with very young children.
Thanks also to Jean Yellin, who has devoted many years to the study of Harriet Jacobs. I hope that Letters from a Slave Girl and Letters from a Slave Boy create a new generation of readers for her edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Most of all, I thank Joseph Shea-Hackett, who brought a young reader’s perspective—the most important kind—to my story of Joseph Jacobs.