What do you think?
Rate this book
Slave Narratives
No literary genre speaks as directly and as eloquently to the brutal contradictions in American history as the slave narrative. The works collected in this volume present unflinching portrayals of the cruelty and degradation of slavery while testifying to the African-American struggle for freedom and dignity. They demonstrate the power of the written word to affirm a person's—and a people's—humanity in a society poisoned by racism. Slave Narratives shows how a diverse group of writers challenged the conscience of a nation and, through their expression of anger, pain, sorrow, and courage, laid the foundations of the African-American literary tradition.
This volume collects ten works published between 1772 and 1864:
Two narratives by James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (1772) and Olaudah Equiano (1789) recount how they were taken from Africa as children and brought across the Atlantic to British North America.
The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831) provides unique insight into the man who led the deadliest slave uprising in American history.
The widely read narratives by the fugitive slaves Frederick Douglass (1845), William Wells Brown (1847), and Henry Bibb (1849) strengthened the abolitionist cause by exposing the hypocrisies inherent in a slaveholding society ostensibly dedicated to liberty and Christian morality.
The Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1850) describes slavery in the North while expressing the eloquent fervor of a dedicated woman.
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom (1860) tells the story of William and Ellen Craft's subversive and ingenious escape from Georgia to Philadelphia.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) is Harriet Jacobs's complex and moving story of her prolonged resistance to sexual and racial oppression.
The narrative of the "trickster" Jacob Green (1864) presents a disturbing story full of wild humor and intense cruelty
Together, these works fuse memory, advocacy, and defiance into a searing collective portrait of American life before emancipation.
Slave Narratives contains a chronology of events in the history of slavery, as well as biographical and explanatory notes and an essay on the texts.
The editors of this volume are William L. Andrews, E. Maynard Adams Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Humanities at Harvard University.
This volume collects ten works published between 1772 and 1864:
Two narratives by James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (1772) and Olaudah Equiano (1789) recount how they were taken from Africa as children and brought across the Atlantic to British North America.
The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831) provides unique insight into the man who led the deadliest slave uprising in American history.
The widely read narratives by the fugitive slaves Frederick Douglass (1845), William Wells Brown (1847), and Henry Bibb (1849) strengthened the abolitionist cause by exposing the hypocrisies inherent in a slaveholding society ostensibly dedicated to liberty and Christian morality.
The Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1850) describes slavery in the North while expressing the eloquent fervor of a dedicated woman.
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom (1860) tells the story of William and Ellen Craft's subversive and ingenious escape from Georgia to Philadelphia.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) is Harriet Jacobs's complex and moving story of her prolonged resistance to sexual and racial oppression.
The narrative of the "trickster" Jacob Green (1864) presents a disturbing story full of wild humor and intense cruelty
Together, these works fuse memory, advocacy, and defiance into a searing collective portrait of American life before emancipation.
Slave Narratives contains a chronology of events in the history of slavery, as well as biographical and explanatory notes and an essay on the texts.
The editors of this volume are William L. Andrews, E. Maynard Adams Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Humanities at Harvard University.
1035 pages, Hardcover
First published January 15, 2000
83 people are currently reading
675 people want to read
About the author
William L. Andrews
66 books9 followersWilliam Leake Andrews (1948-) is an American Professor Emeritus of English at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a scholar of early African-American literature. Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 3, 2025
The Voices Of American Slaves In The Library Of America
This book in the Library of America series is a collection of ten narratives that document the nature of American slavery from colonial times to the eve of the Civil War. The volume includes some familiar narratives, particularly the first and best-known of Frederick Douglass' autobiographies written in 1843, the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave". Douglass has a volume of his own in the Library of America. Many of the other narratives in this volume were new to me.
The book includes two writers from the colonial period, a short account by James Gronniosaw and a longer narrative by Olaudiah Equiano. The latter book has a first-hand description of the notorious "middle passage" -- the transatlantic journey by which Africans were transported to a life of bondage in the New World. This book also features accounts of life at sea during the mid-18th century that reminded me of Patrick O'Brian's novels of sea life during the Napoleonic era.
The collection includes two narratives by women. Sojourner Truth's "Narrative of Sojourner Truth", as told to a woman named Olive Gilbert, appeared in 1850. It tells the story of slavery in New York State (where it was not abolished until 1827) and introduces a strong-willed woman who combined abolitionism with strong religious passion and a commitment to woman's rights. Harriet Jacobs's account, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" was published in 1861. Written in a Victorian style, it still tells the story of the trials of a young woman who resisted her master's advances and hid for seven years in a narrow attic before escaping to freedom.
"The Confessions of Nat Turner" became the basis of a controversial novel by William Styron. It is an account recorded by a local attorney, Thomas Gray, of Turner's description, while in jail waiting execution, of the slave rebellion he led in Virginia in 1831. This is a spare account but to me much more impressive than what I remember of Styron's novel.
Henry Bibb's 1849 "Narrative of the Live and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave" describes several escapes, and a slave prison of almost unbelievable cruelty in Louisville, Kentucky. I found Bibb's extended narrative perhaps the most riveting work in this collection.
Jacob Green's 1864 "Narrative of the Life of J.D. Green: A Runaway Slave from Kentucky" is short and tough-minded book. It shows a person who was not afraid to fight back.
The narrative by William and Ellen Craft "Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom" (1860) describes how a husband and wife disguised themselves to make a 1000 mile journey from Georgia to freedom. Most escapes occurred from the border states. Although easier than an escape from the deep South, escapes from even the border states were extraordinarily difficult.
William Wells Brown, like Douglass, went on to a literary career after his escape from slavery. He was the author of the first published African American novel, "Clotel". Brown also has a LOA volume devoted to has writings. His narrative, "A Fugitive Slave: Written by Himself" (1847) is short but documents convincingly his escape from slavery in Missouri.
This collection will help the reader understand the nature of slavery in the United States from its beginning to its end. The volume is part of the Library of America's admirable attempt to produce uniform series of the best in American literature, thought and history. The narratives of American slaves included in this book amply deserve their place in a series that documents the American experience.
Robin Friedman
This book in the Library of America series is a collection of ten narratives that document the nature of American slavery from colonial times to the eve of the Civil War. The volume includes some familiar narratives, particularly the first and best-known of Frederick Douglass' autobiographies written in 1843, the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave". Douglass has a volume of his own in the Library of America. Many of the other narratives in this volume were new to me.
The book includes two writers from the colonial period, a short account by James Gronniosaw and a longer narrative by Olaudiah Equiano. The latter book has a first-hand description of the notorious "middle passage" -- the transatlantic journey by which Africans were transported to a life of bondage in the New World. This book also features accounts of life at sea during the mid-18th century that reminded me of Patrick O'Brian's novels of sea life during the Napoleonic era.
The collection includes two narratives by women. Sojourner Truth's "Narrative of Sojourner Truth", as told to a woman named Olive Gilbert, appeared in 1850. It tells the story of slavery in New York State (where it was not abolished until 1827) and introduces a strong-willed woman who combined abolitionism with strong religious passion and a commitment to woman's rights. Harriet Jacobs's account, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" was published in 1861. Written in a Victorian style, it still tells the story of the trials of a young woman who resisted her master's advances and hid for seven years in a narrow attic before escaping to freedom.
"The Confessions of Nat Turner" became the basis of a controversial novel by William Styron. It is an account recorded by a local attorney, Thomas Gray, of Turner's description, while in jail waiting execution, of the slave rebellion he led in Virginia in 1831. This is a spare account but to me much more impressive than what I remember of Styron's novel.
Henry Bibb's 1849 "Narrative of the Live and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave" describes several escapes, and a slave prison of almost unbelievable cruelty in Louisville, Kentucky. I found Bibb's extended narrative perhaps the most riveting work in this collection.
Jacob Green's 1864 "Narrative of the Life of J.D. Green: A Runaway Slave from Kentucky" is short and tough-minded book. It shows a person who was not afraid to fight back.
The narrative by William and Ellen Craft "Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom" (1860) describes how a husband and wife disguised themselves to make a 1000 mile journey from Georgia to freedom. Most escapes occurred from the border states. Although easier than an escape from the deep South, escapes from even the border states were extraordinarily difficult.
William Wells Brown, like Douglass, went on to a literary career after his escape from slavery. He was the author of the first published African American novel, "Clotel". Brown also has a LOA volume devoted to has writings. His narrative, "A Fugitive Slave: Written by Himself" (1847) is short but documents convincingly his escape from slavery in Missouri.
This collection will help the reader understand the nature of slavery in the United States from its beginning to its end. The volume is part of the Library of America's admirable attempt to produce uniform series of the best in American literature, thought and history. The narratives of American slaves included in this book amply deserve their place in a series that documents the American experience.
Robin Friedman
February 12, 2017
This book affected me profoundly. While I was reading it, two black men were killed by police and there were protests nationally and friends’ commentary all over my Facebook feed. I wish this book was required reading for everyone in the country. It’s our history, and it’s shameful, and the book provides eloquent witness from the other side of what was in our history books.
It’s not a thick book, but it’s over 1000 pages (very thin paper), and it contains ten mostly full-book-length narratives from the 18th and 19th centuries. Nine of them were written by individuals who were enslaved and made their escapes to freedom. The depictions of the Southern culture are horrendous. The enslaved people were treated horribly, with less consideration than animals. Even the “good” masters (a small minority) would sell children from parents and spouses from each other. There was big industry involved in chains, whips, and other implements of torture—thumbscrews were mentioned in most of the narratives. And they were all used liberally. There was rarely any consequence to killing slaves; it was common. Breeding was also a big business; once the slave trade from Africa stopped, it was how the plantations got more slaves (the life expectancy of enslaved people was not long). All of this was mainstream and was not regarded as bad. In fact, abolitionists were few and far between (and not living in the South at all, that I could tell), and were considered ... well, in today’s terms, anti-American.
The tenth narrative, The Confessions of Nat Turner, is shorter, and is the chilling account of Turner’s “rebellion,” which involved killing as many white people as possible. He was a fanatic, but in the context of the other narratives, I was almost cheering him on.
Religion permeates the book. Several of the narrators (especially the first two, who were 18th century and more in England than the US), were religious to the point where it was hard for me to read. But that was the culture of the time. (And Sojourner Truth was extremely religious, in a very eccentric way.) But the worst of religion was how the white people (Southerners and others) used it to justify not only slavery but extremely harsh treatment of the slaves. I repeat, the Southern culture was horrible. Mean, brutal, rapist slaveholders were not an anomaly but the norm. Black people were considered less than human and were treated horribly.
The current situation in our country, with a significant percentage of black people in our foster care system, juvenile halls, and prisons (many of which are now run as private businesses!), is a direct result of slavery and in some ways a continuation of it. More public attention is now on police shootings of black men and women, but these have been going on all along, direct continuation. There is still plenty of racism. So many Americans think that affirmative action is uncalled for, and say “all lives matter.” They lack perspective, without which the picture is incomplete. Again, this book should be required reading for everyone.
It’s not a thick book, but it’s over 1000 pages (very thin paper), and it contains ten mostly full-book-length narratives from the 18th and 19th centuries. Nine of them were written by individuals who were enslaved and made their escapes to freedom. The depictions of the Southern culture are horrendous. The enslaved people were treated horribly, with less consideration than animals. Even the “good” masters (a small minority) would sell children from parents and spouses from each other. There was big industry involved in chains, whips, and other implements of torture—thumbscrews were mentioned in most of the narratives. And they were all used liberally. There was rarely any consequence to killing slaves; it was common. Breeding was also a big business; once the slave trade from Africa stopped, it was how the plantations got more slaves (the life expectancy of enslaved people was not long). All of this was mainstream and was not regarded as bad. In fact, abolitionists were few and far between (and not living in the South at all, that I could tell), and were considered ... well, in today’s terms, anti-American.
The tenth narrative, The Confessions of Nat Turner, is shorter, and is the chilling account of Turner’s “rebellion,” which involved killing as many white people as possible. He was a fanatic, but in the context of the other narratives, I was almost cheering him on.
Religion permeates the book. Several of the narrators (especially the first two, who were 18th century and more in England than the US), were religious to the point where it was hard for me to read. But that was the culture of the time. (And Sojourner Truth was extremely religious, in a very eccentric way.) But the worst of religion was how the white people (Southerners and others) used it to justify not only slavery but extremely harsh treatment of the slaves. I repeat, the Southern culture was horrible. Mean, brutal, rapist slaveholders were not an anomaly but the norm. Black people were considered less than human and were treated horribly.
The current situation in our country, with a significant percentage of black people in our foster care system, juvenile halls, and prisons (many of which are now run as private businesses!), is a direct result of slavery and in some ways a continuation of it. More public attention is now on police shootings of black men and women, but these have been going on all along, direct continuation. There is still plenty of racism. So many Americans think that affirmative action is uncalled for, and say “all lives matter.” They lack perspective, without which the picture is incomplete. Again, this book should be required reading for everyone.
October 11, 2011
See my reviews for each of the ten slave narratives in this volume. I do want to add, though, that it appears to me as if the "4.15" average rating for this book must be based on aesthetic grounds (i.e., some of the narratives are not well-written). There are two things I'd like to say about this: most of these narratives were written by ex-slaves who came more or less late to literacy in reading and writing; a little roughness around the edges is only to be expected (and there IS a certain aesthetic, different from other 19th-century American writings, evident in most of these works). Second, in my opinion ratings for this volume would be more sound if based on the job done by Andrews and Gates in editing it. That rating would only be of the highest order: the works chosen are uniformly important for various historical reasons and the editors have done an amazing job of reducing a wide range of critical writings into comprehensive biographical and textual notes that add to the texts themselves. This is an important book.
July 2, 2020
This is an excellent collection of the accounts provided by formerly enslaved persons, which can provide much information over the Independence Day weekend. This Independence was not formed without much suffering for those who have not been fully recognized, to this day.
June 7, 2019
Important stories every American should read!
August 24, 2020
Sure as the sun shines, the odds that many of the slaves who the Statesmen of the states south of the Dixon line started a war to keep in bondage were their children is greater than zero. That grim insight into an American tragedy is one of the many gems in this collection compiled by William H. Andrews and Henry Louis Gates Jnr.
James, Olaudah, Nat, Frederick, William, Henry, Sojourner Truth, William, Ellen, Maria and JD Green are our guides across the Caribbean, USA, Canada and Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries. And what guides they are! In the ‘fell clutch of circumstance’ with their heads bloodied, they did not bow. Their lives and words forever stand as indictments to the system that they overcame.
As of the year 2020, the unconscionability of slavery is uncontested. It was not so when they wrote. Their words contributed to the unlocking of hearts and minds which finally broke the chains of their kin. Yet their lives, even after their escape from bondage, was constantly threatened. Not all survived. None lived happy lives, at least to start. The narratives of their lives follow a set pattern: birth, misery, escape. Evaluated strictly on their literary merits, not all the tales are equal. Thus, the book can be a slog to read straight through due to that set pattern, and frankly, the sheer misery in their tales. Wickedness, I expected going in. My expectations were met and then stratospherically exceeded. If you want to save the best for last or read it first, then I recommend: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl provided the insight that started this review. Other than a razor-shape indictment of slavery, this book was also valuable as a window into the societies it covers. Given the USA’s historical orthodoxy (and recent events), reading about the reputation of England as a refuge of slaves, and the bosom of Queen Victoria’s American Dominions being regaled as the shores of liberty was rather droll. Yankee hustle and the emerging industrial might of the USA, already noticeable even then in the North, are given ample showing. The American patriot will be heartened to know that even those who had seen the USA’s worst said that Europe seemed poorer. I left with the sense that the ordinary apolitical yeoman were rather kind people. Family life among the slaves, at least through the lenses of the narrative, seems mixed. It was not the gilded image of Southern propaganda. Neither was it completely dire. The familial bonds among many of those we meet were adamantine. Not that the slavers helped.
Southern society comes off worst. I lack the words to describe the feeling…it was downright uncanny how creepy and psychologically damaged the whole get-up was. Slaves pissing in their ailing owners’ food. Men killing slavers who tried to rape their wives and getting burnt at the stake, in the name of ‘justice’. Those are only some of the gruesome examples in the book. Southern society was also poor, filthy and permanently on edge, compared to the North. Not that it was a paradise either. It was just the land of the free, until the Slave Fugitive Act, at least.
Like all villains, hubris paved the South's road to destruction. They spat on the face of a leviathan that had done everything, humanly possible, to conciliate them and were crushed for their arrogance. Good riddance! They deserve all the excrement heaped on their legacy.
This is an excellent book that I heartily recommend to everybody.
James, Olaudah, Nat, Frederick, William, Henry, Sojourner Truth, William, Ellen, Maria and JD Green are our guides across the Caribbean, USA, Canada and Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries. And what guides they are! In the ‘fell clutch of circumstance’ with their heads bloodied, they did not bow. Their lives and words forever stand as indictments to the system that they overcame.
As of the year 2020, the unconscionability of slavery is uncontested. It was not so when they wrote. Their words contributed to the unlocking of hearts and minds which finally broke the chains of their kin. Yet their lives, even after their escape from bondage, was constantly threatened. Not all survived. None lived happy lives, at least to start. The narratives of their lives follow a set pattern: birth, misery, escape. Evaluated strictly on their literary merits, not all the tales are equal. Thus, the book can be a slog to read straight through due to that set pattern, and frankly, the sheer misery in their tales. Wickedness, I expected going in. My expectations were met and then stratospherically exceeded. If you want to save the best for last or read it first, then I recommend: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl provided the insight that started this review. Other than a razor-shape indictment of slavery, this book was also valuable as a window into the societies it covers. Given the USA’s historical orthodoxy (and recent events), reading about the reputation of England as a refuge of slaves, and the bosom of Queen Victoria’s American Dominions being regaled as the shores of liberty was rather droll. Yankee hustle and the emerging industrial might of the USA, already noticeable even then in the North, are given ample showing. The American patriot will be heartened to know that even those who had seen the USA’s worst said that Europe seemed poorer. I left with the sense that the ordinary apolitical yeoman were rather kind people. Family life among the slaves, at least through the lenses of the narrative, seems mixed. It was not the gilded image of Southern propaganda. Neither was it completely dire. The familial bonds among many of those we meet were adamantine. Not that the slavers helped.
Southern society comes off worst. I lack the words to describe the feeling…it was downright uncanny how creepy and psychologically damaged the whole get-up was. Slaves pissing in their ailing owners’ food. Men killing slavers who tried to rape their wives and getting burnt at the stake, in the name of ‘justice’. Those are only some of the gruesome examples in the book. Southern society was also poor, filthy and permanently on edge, compared to the North. Not that it was a paradise either. It was just the land of the free, until the Slave Fugitive Act, at least.
Like all villains, hubris paved the South's road to destruction. They spat on the face of a leviathan that had done everything, humanly possible, to conciliate them and were crushed for their arrogance. Good riddance! They deserve all the excrement heaped on their legacy.
This is an excellent book that I heartily recommend to everybody.
October 6, 2014
For at least three reasons, anybody living in a country with a significant number of descendants of African slaves should read one or two collection of slave narratives.
The first reason is that the Goodreads software has allowed you to identify over 500 books that you have read and has left you with the impression that you have read another 500 book whose names you can remember. Thus know that one volume of slave narratives represents roughly one tenth of 1 % of your life's total readings. This is I suggest a tiny effort in terms of the benefits that you will reap from knowing more about the lives experienced by the ancestors of many of your friends. Of course if you are yourself the descendant of a slave you really ought to read at least three collections.
The second reason is that the slaves produced excellent and highly enjoyable narratives. They are succinct, highly informative and quite entertaining. Moreover the slave narrators are of very independent minds. Your hear them constantly reprimanding their interviewers and transcribers for trying to put words in their mouths.
The third reason is that the academics have done remarkably little since slavery was abolished in 1865 to enhance our knowledge of the institution. What has happened has been a dreary effort to cover up, a lurid effort to exaggerate and finally a profoundly misguided series of initiatives to force the facts of slavery into inappropriate models from psychology, political science , sociology, Marxism, liberal economics and possibly other fields.
Read the slave narratives. In very sober and direct accounts that tell you what it was like to live as a tradable asset, to see your children auctioned off, to understand that you have no right to prevent your owner from sleeping with either your wife or daughter, to be whipped at any moment according to the caprice of your owner and to be grievously undernourished. There are indeed many good books that have been written on slavery by academics. However, for very little effort and great reading pleasure, you can get the story form in a clearer form from the horse's mouth.
The first reason is that the Goodreads software has allowed you to identify over 500 books that you have read and has left you with the impression that you have read another 500 book whose names you can remember. Thus know that one volume of slave narratives represents roughly one tenth of 1 % of your life's total readings. This is I suggest a tiny effort in terms of the benefits that you will reap from knowing more about the lives experienced by the ancestors of many of your friends. Of course if you are yourself the descendant of a slave you really ought to read at least three collections.
The second reason is that the slaves produced excellent and highly enjoyable narratives. They are succinct, highly informative and quite entertaining. Moreover the slave narrators are of very independent minds. Your hear them constantly reprimanding their interviewers and transcribers for trying to put words in their mouths.
The third reason is that the academics have done remarkably little since slavery was abolished in 1865 to enhance our knowledge of the institution. What has happened has been a dreary effort to cover up, a lurid effort to exaggerate and finally a profoundly misguided series of initiatives to force the facts of slavery into inappropriate models from psychology, political science , sociology, Marxism, liberal economics and possibly other fields.
Read the slave narratives. In very sober and direct accounts that tell you what it was like to live as a tradable asset, to see your children auctioned off, to understand that you have no right to prevent your owner from sleeping with either your wife or daughter, to be whipped at any moment according to the caprice of your owner and to be grievously undernourished. There are indeed many good books that have been written on slavery by academics. However, for very little effort and great reading pleasure, you can get the story form in a clearer form from the horse's mouth.
June 25, 2013
A great read for all audiences. For me, it brought out the true struggles slaves went through. It was even sometimes humorous!!
August 27, 2017
True accounts of slavery. I'm not sure why I wanted to read the life accounts of slaves, but it always astounds me at the emotional strength people had to have to survive inhumane and unfair treatment.
Read
December 23, 2022I read about half of this for a class several years ago and finished it this year.
My only impression from several years ago was being blown away by Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents." I'm so happy I read that. I'd already read some excerpts from Douglass's first memoir, so that make less of an impression.
I'd tried to read Equiano before (for another class), and it was a drag to finish. The beginning set in Africa is so interesting. After he's free, it became a slog.
It's notable when the narratives do other things than describe slavery--religion being the most notable topic. (Though their abolitionist arguments all draw from religion.) Sojourner Truth's story was particularly striking. I didn't expect her to become a part of the proliferating 19th-century religious movements of New York State, but hey, why not?
This collection is big. Really big. The variations in the narratives are striking, then, in addressing the horrors of slavery. They acknowledge you can't just write every awful thing that happened, so what do you do? The dance around sexual violence stood out to me. It was an unacceptable topic for books at the time, but so damning of the slave masters.
Green's story is picaresque. Jacobs' is Gothic. The Crafts' is an adventure story. Those are the three that made the biggest impression on me, and what different vehicles to address the depravity of slavery.
My only impression from several years ago was being blown away by Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents." I'm so happy I read that. I'd already read some excerpts from Douglass's first memoir, so that make less of an impression.
I'd tried to read Equiano before (for another class), and it was a drag to finish. The beginning set in Africa is so interesting. After he's free, it became a slog.
It's notable when the narratives do other things than describe slavery--religion being the most notable topic. (Though their abolitionist arguments all draw from religion.) Sojourner Truth's story was particularly striking. I didn't expect her to become a part of the proliferating 19th-century religious movements of New York State, but hey, why not?
This collection is big. Really big. The variations in the narratives are striking, then, in addressing the horrors of slavery. They acknowledge you can't just write every awful thing that happened, so what do you do? The dance around sexual violence stood out to me. It was an unacceptable topic for books at the time, but so damning of the slave masters.
Green's story is picaresque. Jacobs' is Gothic. The Crafts' is an adventure story. Those are the three that made the biggest impression on me, and what different vehicles to address the depravity of slavery.
March 18, 2010
This is a really interesting collection of several different biographies of former slaves. There are some amazing stories about the events they lived through and some truly nauseating accounts of how people were treated by other people. It was interesting to get the little tidbits of history because there were some "normal" people and then some more famous people. Several of the normal people focused a significant portion of their stories on their conversions to Christianity, which got a little old. All in all, it was really an amazing read and a good way to get a real life glimpse at how they lived during that era.
February 22, 2010
Only read the The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Check out the Appendix - super powerful rhetoric of denunciation.
January 17, 2022
I'd read more primary sources if they were all page turners like this.
November 2, 2022
Personal narratives mostly written by people who had been enslaved or were currently enslaved at the time of writing. Challenging read sometimes just because of the writing style, others because of content and sometimes seems too unreal to believe it could really have happened but you know in your mind it did.
June 27, 2021
Fascinating first-hand accounts of the horrors of slavery and the courage of those who escaped it.
March 6, 2024
In this anthology, I read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews