slave narrative

 

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The slave narrative is a literary form which grew out of the experience of enslaved Africans in Britain and the New World. Some six thousand former slaves from North America and the Caribbean gave an account of their lives during the 18th and 19th centuries, with about 150 published as separate books or pamphlets. There are also slave narratives written by white Americans or Europeans captured and enslaved in North Africa, usually by Barbary pirates.

North American and Caribbean slave narratives

Slave narratives were first produced in England in the 18th century, and they soon became a mainstay of African American literature. During the first half of the 19th century, the controversy over slavery in the United States lead to impassioned literature on both sides of the issue. Novels such as Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) represented the abolitionist view of the evils of slavery, while the so-called anti-Tom novels by white, southern writers like William Gilmore Simms represented the pro-slavery viewpoint.

To present the reality of slavery, a number of former slaves such as Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass published accounts of their enslavement. Eventually some six thousand former slaves from North America and the Caribbean wrote accounts of their lives, with about 150 of these published as separate books or pamphlets.

North American and Caribbean slave narratives can be broadly categorized into three distinct forms: tales of religious redemption, tales to inspire the abolitionist struggle, and tales of progress. The tales written to inspire the abolitionist struggle are the most famous because they tend to have a strong autobiographical motif, such as in Frederick Douglass's autobiography and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs (1861).

Tales of religious redemption

From the 1770s to the 1820s the slave narratives generally gave an account of a spiritual journey leading to Christian redemption. The authors frequently characterized themselves as Africans rather than slaves. These first appeared in England.

Examples include:

A Narrative of the Most remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince, by Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Bath 1772

The Interesting Narrative and the life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African, by Olaudah Equiano, London 1789

A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a native of Africa: But resident Above Sixty Years in the United State of America by Venture Smith, New London 1798

Tales to inspire the abolitionist struggle

From the mid-1820's the genre became much more the conscious use of the autobiographical form to generate enthusiasms for the abolitionist struggle. They became more literary in form often with the introduction of fictionalized dialogue. Between 1835 and 1865 over 80 such narratives were published. Recurrent features include: slave auctions, the break of families and frequently two accounts of escapes, one of which is successful.

Examples include:

Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, New York 1825

The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, London 1831

Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, A Black Man, Lewistown 1836

A Narrative of Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper from American Slavery, London 1837

A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Boston 1845

Narratives of the Sufferings of Lewis and Milton Clarke, Sons of a Soldier of the revolution, during a Captivity of more than Twenty years among the Slaveholders of Kentucky, Boston 1846

Narrative of William Wells Brown, a fugitive Slave, Boston 1847

The Life of Josiah Henson, formerly a Slave, now an Inhabitant of Canada, Boston 1849

Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, New York 1849

The Fugitive Blacksmith, or Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington, London 1849

Twelve years a slave, Narrative of Solomon Northrup, Auburn, Buffalo and London 1853

Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings and Escape of John Brown, London 1855 ISBN 0-8369-8865-5

The Life of John Thompson, A Fugitive Slave, Worcester, Massachusetts 1855

The Kidnapped and the Ransomed, Being the Personal Recollections of Peter Still and his Wife "Vina," after Forty Years of Slavery, by Kate E. R. Pickard, New York, 1856

Running a thousand Miles for Freedom, or the Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery, London 1860

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs, Boston 1861

The Experience of a Slave in South Carolina by John Andrew Jackson, London 1862

Narrative of the Life of J. D. Green, a Runaway Slave from Kentucky, Huddersfield 1864

Mary Reynolds (ex-slave) Louisiana, 1827

Tales of progress

Following the defeat of the slave states of the Confederate South, the narratives lost their urgency and were less concerned with conveying the evils of slavery. Some times they even gave a sentimental account of plantation life and also often ended with the narrator adjusting to their new life of freedom. In this the emphasis frequently shifted conceptually more towards progress than freedom.

Examples include:

The Life of James Mars, A Slave Born and Sold in Connecticut, Hartford 1864

From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or, Struggles for Freedom, by Lucy Delaney 1892

The Freedman's Story by William Parker, published in The Atlantic Monthly 1866

Thirty Years a Slave: From Bondage to Freedom by Louis Hughes, Milwaukee 1897

Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington Garden City, New York 1901

WPA slave narratives

During the Great Depression the New Deal Works Projects Administration (WPA) used unemployed writers and researchers from the Federal Writers' Project to interview and document the stories of surviving African-Americans who had been part of the American slave system up until the Thirteenth Amendment. Produced between 1936 and 1938, the narratives retell the experiences of more than 2,300 former slaves.

North African slave narratives

In comparison to North American and Caribbean slave narratives, the North African slave narratives were written by white Europeans and Americans captured and enslaved in North Africa in the 18th and early 19th centuries. They have a distinct form in that they highlight the otherness of their Islamic enslavers, whereas the African American slave narratives call their fellow Christian enslavers to account.

Examples include:

The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas Pellow, In South Barbary, 1740

A Curious, Historical and Entertaining Narrative of the Captivity and almost unheard of Sufferings and Cruel treatment of Mr Robert White, 1790

A Journal of the Captivity and Suffering of John Foss; Several Years a Prisoner in Algiers 1798

History of the Captivity and Sufferings of Mrs Marian Martin who was six years a slave in Algiers, 1810

History of the Captivity and Sufferings of Mrs Lucinda Martin who was six years a slave in Algiers, 1806

The Narrative of Robert Adams, An American Sailor who was wrecked on the West Coast of Africa in the year 1810; was detained Three Years in Slavery by the Arabs of the Great Desert, 1817

Contemporary slave narratives

A contemporary slave narrative is a memoir published now, written by a former slave, or ghost-written on their behalf.

Examples include:

Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity - and My Journey to Freedom in America by Francis Bok and Edward Tivnan

Slave by Mende Nazer and Damien Lewis

"Peter's story", by Peter Doyle, in A tribute to The Lost People of Arlington House, The National Archives, London 2004

Neo-slave narratives

A neo-slave narrative is an account of slavery written in contemporary times. The authors use their imagination, oral histories, and already-existing slave narratives to construct these stories. They are not writing of their own experiences, or acting as an amanuensis for a former slave.

Examples include:

Octavia E. Butler's Kindred

David Anthony Durham's Walk Through Darkness

Marie-Elena John's Unburnable

Edward P. Jones' The Known World

Toni Morrison's Beloved

William Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner

See also

• African American literature
• Caribbean literature
• Lucinda Davis
• Moses Roper
• William J. Anderson
• J Vance Lewis
• Jared Maurice Arter

External links

• Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 on loc.gov
• North American Slave Narratives, Beginnings to 1920 on docsouth.unc.edu
• Robert E. Lee's Slave
• Slave Narratives oral history of former U.S. slaves collected in the 1930s by the WPA on virginia.edu
• eTexts of oral history of former U.S. slaves collected in the 1930s by the WPA, at Project Gutenberg
• Brief Description of the American Slave Narrative at the Literary Movements site
• Audio presentation and podcast of slave narratives at Museum of the African Diaspora
• Review Essay: Francis Bok's Escape from Slavery and Contemporary Slave Narratives by Joe Lockhard, June 2004

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