Dr james norcom biography examples

I was attending classes at Palomar College in San Diego County when I stumbled into the classroom of a history professor who could tell a story better than any person I have ever met. That professor, Dr. Linda Dudik, had no idea, at the time, just how much her stories would change the direction of my life. Originally a film major, I changed to history after only two semesters in her classes.

By mid-semester the class had progressed to learning about women making a difference in the early s. One day, the class topic was a discussion about a woman from the days of slavery. As my professor told the story, she held a book in her hands, facing the cover toward the class, and, as I listened, the image of a woman, a former slave woman, Harriet Jacobs, was truly becoming burned into my mind and soul.

Biography.

Sitting there, I had no idea just how much I would eventually learn about this woman and about the institution that oppressed her. By the age of twelve, Harriet Jacobs was the property of a man, Dr. James Norcom, an Edenton doctor, who would spend years sexually harrassing her. His sexual advances toward Jacobs would be rejected by her over and over again.

But this action only proved to make Norcom more determined to force Jacobs to bend to his will.

Since Mary Norcom was only three years old when Harriet Jacobs became her slave, Mary's father, Dr. James Norcom, an Edenton physician, became Jacobs's de facto master.

James Norcom Threatened with life in the fields of a plantation, Jacobs made the decision to run away in order to spare her children that hard life. The space was very cramped and there was little to no light or air, but she remained in this hiding space for six years and eleven months. Jacobs would be permanately crippled from life in this tiny space.

She only left the safety of the garret and headed north to freedom after Sawyer was able to secure his children from Dr. Norcom, their master.