Prior to Jean Fagan Yellin's research in the 1980s, the accepted academic opinion, voiced by such historians as John Blassingame, was that "Incidents" was a fictional novel written by Lydia Maria Child. However, Yellin found and used a variety of historical documents, including from the Amy Post papers at the University of Rochester, state and local historical societies, and the Horniblow and Norcom papers at the North Carolina state archives, to establish both that Harriet Jacobs was the true author of "Incidents," and that the narrative was her autobiography, not a work of fiction. Her edition of "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" was published in 1987 with the endorsement of Professor John Blassingame.