Truth Be Told : Three Classic Black Women’s Narratives

by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Robin Miles (Narrator)

From Harriet Jacobs’ experience as a fugitive, to Susie King Taylor’s life as a nurse and teacher for the Union Army, to the powerful life of journalist and activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Black women have always stood at the center of the fight for freedom and progress. All three were born enslaved, yet each found the courage and grit to push back against societal norms to fight for or simply take their freedom. Truth Be Told comprises three powerful narratives written by formerly enslaved women who lived long past emancipation. Each narrative offers a window into time and moves the listener along chronologically from the early years of a new nation, through the Civil War, and up through the perilous years of Reconstruction.

Award-winning author and historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar provides an accessible and engaging introduction and afterword for each narrative, tying these figures’ lives to the arc of Black history and illuminating connections to the current global social justice movement that focuses on Black life. The afterword for Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl focuses on sexual violence, escape, being hunted, and looking for safety in the United States. For Susie King Taylor’s Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops: Late 1st S. C. Volunteers, the conclusion focuses on women and military service, war, Confederate monuments, and federal occupation. Finally, the afterword for Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases focuses on the rise of racial violence and the murder of Black men, women, and children at the hands of citizens and law enforcement. This compilation serves as the ultimate collection of classic narratives written by three Black women social justice advocates who provided gripping testimony about their experiences in order to remind their nineteenth-century readers that Black lives mattered.

Genres: Nonfiction

Audiobook

Published March 30, 2021

About the author

Erica Armstrong Dunbar is the Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History at Rutgers University. She also served as director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Dunbar attended college at the University of Pennsylvania, then earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Reviews

[Ava Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

To say that reading these three memoirs made me feel so humbled and educated would be an UNDERSTATEMENT. A must read and a unique insight into a woman’s perspective during the civil war, slavery, and lynch law in America. These women are so bad ass and intelligent and bold and BRAVE. Also had great introductions and context. Can’t say enough about this!!!

[Daa_of_night · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this five stars, if the author had not indulged her need to create parallels between current events and the lives these women lived.
For example: Dylan Roof. If the parallel was a true one, that creep would be free, instead of locked in a high security prison. And the congregation of the church he targeted would have been WELL SERVED to follow the advice of Ms Wells regarding Winchesters. All minorities and women should. But we have not learned. Instead, fools demand disarmament of the public, including minorities and women.

My suggestion: skip to the narratives of the women who are supposed to be the focus of this collection. THEY SHOULD BE HEARD.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revelatory autobiographical works by three different African American women from pre-Civil War through to the early 20th Century. Fiction cannot compare to facts. Highly Recommend!