Definition/Introduction
Slave Narratives: An Overview
A free man "cannot see things in the same light with the slave, because he does not, and cannot, look from the same point from which the slave does," argued Frederick Douglass (1817–1895) in his second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom (2003, p. 254).
Removed from the experience of slavery and incapable of ever looking at the world from the point of view of the enslaved, scholars of American history have relied on slave testimony, such as slave narratives, to represent the experience and impact of slavery.
Written and dictated by American slaves, slave narratives recount the bondmen and bondwomen's struggles from slavery to freedom. These firsthand accounts discuss a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to, life under slavery, relations among slaves, interactions with white masters and overseers, abolitionism, rebellion, and resistance. Although there are several slave narratives from as early as the mid-eighteenth century and some that extend into the early decades of the twentieth century, this literary genre reached the peak of its popularity in the mid-nineteenth century. Slave narratives had a dual purpose: exposing the abominations of bondage and persuading a removed readership to actively oppose the institution of slavery.
(Excerpt from Dubcovsky, Alejandra. "Slave Narratives: An Overview." Gale Library of Daily Life: Slavery in America, edited by Orville Vernon Burton, vol. 2, Gale, 2008, pp. 195-197. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3057200258/GVRL?u=sant38536&sid=GVRL&xid=37a14f55. Accessed 11 Mar. 2021.
Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories
This is one of the many remarkable digital collections of the Library of Congress. To quote the collection itself:
"The recordings of former slaves in Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine states. Twenty-three interviewees discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom. Several individuals sing songs, many of which were learned during the time of their enslavement. It is important to note that all of the interviewees spoke sixty or more years after the end of their enslavement, and it is their full lives that are reflected in these recordings. The individuals documented in this presentation have much to say about living as African Americans from the 1870s to the 1930s, and beyond."
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938
Another truly amazing digital collection of the Library of Congress. Read about it:
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. In 2000-2001, with major support from the Citigroup Foundation, the Library digitized the narratives from the microfilm edition and scanned from the originals 500 photographs, including more than 200 that had never been microfilmed or made publicly available.
A few famous titles
The Narrative of Sojourner Truth by ISBN: 9781504048217Publication Date: 2017 (1850)Born into slavery in New York around 1797, then sold from master to master, Sojourner Truth spent her formative years witnessing the cruelty inherent in the institution of slavery. Escaping to a friendly household before emancipation, she learned that her young son had been sold illegally and launched a lawsuit that would end with his release -- the first time in America that a black woman went to court against a white man and won. But Truth hadn’t even begun her work. She made it her life’s mission to free all those who were considered less than equal, both those in chains and those held down because of their gender, ultimately inspiring her friends and followers with the legendary speech that came to be known as “Ain’t I a Woman?” So great was Truth’s reknown and respect that she met with President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. She was later named one of the 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time by Smithsonian magazine. Published in 1850, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth was spoken aloud to Truth’s friend and neighbor Olive Gilbert, as she herself was illiterate. Along with The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, it remains one of the most moving and eloquent slave narratives & a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. (Publisher)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by ISBN: 9780674601017Publication Date: 1960 (1845)"Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in the cabin of his grandmother, Betsey Bailey, on Tuckahoe Creek in Talbot County, Maryland, sometime around February of 1818. Born of a slave mother and white father (who was probably his master), Douglass tells a powerful tale of the beatings and mistreatment that he observed and endured. The story spans Douglass's twenty years in slavery, his success in escaping it, and his initial involvement in the abolitionist movement.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave was an instant success, selling five thousand copies in its first four months of publication. It especially appealed to both Americans and Europeans opposed to slavery. They found in Douglass's descriptions of the slave's life and the conditions of enforced servitude more reason for their opposition. Douglass was now famous and had formed his own views about how to attack slavery. Upon his return from Europe, he broke with Garrison and his extremely radical approach; for instance, Garrison frowned on political action, or negotiating with slave states, and called for disunion. Douglass pursued a different route, supporting political action, and in 1847 he started his own newspaper, The North Star. In subsequent years, he wrote two more autobiographies: My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881)." (Literature & Its Times, Gale, 1997)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by ISBN: 9781504034654Publication Date: 2016 (1861)When her mother dies, six-year-old slave girl Linda Brent is sent to the big house, where she grows up serving a gentle mistress who teaches her to read and write. But the mistress death brings about a sudden and terrible change in Linda’s fortunes. Her lecherous new master torments Linda mercilessly, making her life a living hell. Unable to join her two young children in their escape to the North, Linda hides in the attic above her grandmother’s house. For seven years, she waits for the opportunity to flee North Carolina and reunite with her son and daughter in the land of freedom. But when the chance finally comes, Linda discovers she has yet more pain to endure.Based on the true story of Harriet Jacobs’s escape from the South, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is one of American literature’s most powerful indictments of the evils of slavery. (Publisher)
Twelve Years a Slave by ISBN: 9781467776288Publication Date: 2014 (1855)For more than thirty years, Solomon Northup lived in New York as a free man. But in 1841, while pursuing a job offer in Washington DC, Northup was kidnapped and sold into slavery. After being brutally beaten for insisting on his right to live freely, Northup grew silent about his past. It was not until twelve years later that he shared his story with Samuel Bass, a white abolitionist, setting in motion the chain of events that would finally bring him home in 1853. Penned in his first year of renewed freedom, Northup's memoir unveils the inconceivable cruelties—and rare moments of kindness—he experienced during his enslavement. The revelations in his narrative served as a powerful contribution to the fight against slavery. This unabridged version of Northup's work is taken from an 1855 copyright edition. (Publisher)
