By early 1863, Harriet Jacobs had long mastered reading people. Even before she could extend a hand to the stone-faced Julia Wilbur, she caught a flash of resentment in Wilbur's eyes. Jacobs decided against a handshake. “Miss Wilbur, I am Harriet Jacobs. Do you remember me?” she asked. Wilbur did remember Jacobs. In fact, Wilbur had not taken her eyes off of the immaculately but modestly dressed African American woman from the moment Jacobs stepped into the converted barracks that now served as a school for freedwomen and girls. Wilbur first met Jacobs in 1849 in Rochester, New York, when Wilbur was a teacher and the secretary of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. Then, Jacobs was a self-emancipated, former slave operating an antislavery reading room in the city. Yet, on this unseasonably warm evening of January 14, 1863, in a converted barracks in the District of Columbia, the wheels of fortune had indeed turned. Wilbur made no effort to hide her anger as Jacobs explained that the New York Friends had decided to make Jacobs head matron of the freedwomen's school—the school Wilbur had opened and run almost single-handedly for three months.

到 1863 年初，哈丽雅特·雅各布斯早就掌握了阅读人的技巧。还没等她把手伸向面无表情的茱莉亚·威尔伯，她就捕捉到了威尔伯眼中闪过的怨恨。雅各布斯决定不握手。“威尔伯小姐，我是哈丽特·雅各布斯。你还记得我吗？” 她问。威尔伯确实记得雅各布斯。事实上，从雅各布斯踏入现在作为自由妇女和女孩学校的改建军营的那一刻起，威尔伯就没有把目光从这位衣着整洁但朴素的非洲裔美国女性身上移开。威尔伯于 1849 年在纽约罗切斯特第一次见到雅各布斯，当时威尔伯是一名教师和罗切斯特女士反奴隶制协会的秘书。然后，雅各布斯是一个自我解放的前奴隶，在城里经营着一家反奴隶制阅览室。然而，在 1863 年 1 月 14 日这个异常温暖的夜晚，在哥伦比亚特区的一个改建军营里，命运之轮确实转动了​​。威尔伯毫不掩饰自己的愤怒，雅各布斯解释说，纽约之友决定让雅各布斯担任自由女子学校的校长——这所学校威尔伯几乎独自一人开办并经营了三个月。