The slave narrative is a type of

literary genre A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from more abstract, encompassing classes, which are then further sub-divided in ...

involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of enslaved

Africans African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

, particularly in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...

. Over six thousand such narratives are estimated to exist; about 150 narratives were published as separate books or pamphlets. In the United States during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

(1930s), more than 2,300 additional

oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

on life during slavery were collected by writers sponsored and published by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

, a

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...

program. Most of the 26 audio-recorded interviews are held by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

. Some of the earliest

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

s of captivity known in the English-speaking world were written by white

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (20 ...

and later

Americans Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Ame ...

, captured and sometimes enslaved in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

by local Muslims, usually

Barbary pirates The Barbary pirates, or Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. This area was known in Europe ...

. These were part of a broad category of "

captivity narrative Captivity narratives are usually stories of people captured by enemies whom they consider uncivilized, or whose beliefs and customs they oppose. The best-known captivity narratives in North America are those concerning Europeans and Americans ta ...

s". Beginning in the 17th century, these included accounts by

colonists A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

and later American settlers in North America and the United States who were captured and held by Native Americans. Several well-known captivity narratives were published before the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

, and they often followed forms established with the narratives of captivity in North Africa. North African accounts did not continue to compile after the

Napoleonic Era The Napoleonic era is a period in the history of France and Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislativ ...

; accounts from North Americans, captured by western tribes migrating west continued until the end of the 19th century. Given the problem of international contemporary slavery in the 20th and 21st centuries, additional slave narratives are being written and published.

As a literary genre

The development of slave narratives from autobiographical accounts to modern fictional works led to the establishment of slave narratives as a literary

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other f ...

. This large rubric of this so-called "captivity literature" includes more generally "any account of the life, or a major portion of the life, of a

fugitive A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known ...

or former slave, either written or orally related by the slave himself or herself". Whereas the first narratives told the stories of fugitive or freed slaves in a time of racial prejudice, they further developed into retrospective fictional novels and extended their influence until common days. Not only maintaining the memory and capturing the historical truth transmitted in these accounts, but slave narratives were primarily the tool for fugitive or former slaves to state their independence in the 19th century, and carry on and conserve authentic and true historical facts from a first-person perspective. They go further than just autobiographies, and are moreover "a source for reconstructing historical experience". The freed slaves that wrote the narratives are considered as historians, since "memory and history come together". These accounts link elements of the slave's personal life and destiny with key historical phenomena, such as the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

and the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

. In simple, yet powerful storylines, slave narratives follow in general a plot common to all of them: starting from the initial situation, the slave in his master's home, the protagonist escapes in the wilderness and narrates the struggle for survival and recognition throughout his uncertain journey to freedom. After all, these narratives were written retrospectively by freed slaves and/or their abolitionist advocate, hence the focus on the transformation from the dehumanized slave to the self-emancipated free man. This change often entailed literacy as a means to overcome captivity, as the case of

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

highlights. The narratives are very graphic to the extent as extensive accounts of e.g. whipping, abuse and rape of enslaved women are exposed in detail (see

Treatment of slaves in the United States The treatment of slaves in the United States often included sexual abuse and rape, the denial of education, and punishments like whippings. Families were often split up by the sale of one or more members, usually never to see or hear of each o ...

). The denunciation of the slave owners, in particular their cruelty and hypocrisy, is a recurring theme in slave narratives, and in some examples took a comic stance denouncing the double standards (e.g. in Douglass's narrative, his slave owner Hopkins is a very religious, but also brutal man). According to James Olney, a typical outline looks the following way: There is no consensus about what exact type of literature slave narratives are, whether they can be considered as a proper genre, comprised in the large category

, or are

autobiographies An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

testimonial In promotion and advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a person's written or spoken statement extolling the virtue of a product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary citizens, whe ...

s, or

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

s; nonetheless, they play a big part in keeping up the memory of slavery and in approaching a topic that was considered as a taboo for a long time – especially since many denied and still deny the existence of slavery. Given the participation in the 19th century of abolitionist editors (at least in the United States), influential early 20th-century historians, such as

Ulrich B. Phillips Ulrich Bonnell Phillips (November 4, 1877 – January 21, 1934) was an American historian who largely defined the field of the social and economic studies of the history of the Antebellum South and slavery in the U.S. Phillips concentrated on t ...

in 1929, suggested that, as a class, "their authenticity was doubtful". These doubts have been criticized following better academic research of these narratives, since the late 20th-century historians have more often validated the accounts of slaves about their own experiences.

North American slave narratives

Slave narratives by African slaves from North America were first published in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

in the 18th century. They soon became the main form of

African-American literature African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Before the high point of slave narratives, African ...

in the 19th century. Slave narratives were publicized by

abolitionists Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

, who sometimes participated as editors, or writers if slaves were not literate. During the first half of the 19th century, the controversy over slavery in the United States led to impassioned literature on both sides of the issue. To present the reality of slavery, a number of former slaves, such as

Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves, including family and friends, u ...

Harriet Jacobs Harriet Jacobs (1813 or 1815 – March 7, 1897) was an African-American writer whose autobiography, '' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'', published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, is now considered an "American classic". Born int ...

, and

, published accounts of their enslavement and their escapes to freedom.

Lucy Delaney Lucy Delaney ( Lucy Ann Berry; c. 1828–1830 – August 31, 1910) was an African-American woman, who when she was free was a seamstress, slave narrator, and community leader. She was born into slavery and was primarily held by the Major Taylor ...

wrote an account that included the

freedom suit Freedom suits were lawsuits in the Thirteen Colonies and the United States filed by slaves against slaveholders to assert claims to freedom, often based on descent from a free maternal ancestor, or time held as a resident in a free state or ter ...

waged by her mother in

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

for their freedom. Eventually some 6,000 former slaves from North America and the Caribbean wrote accounts of their lives, and over 100 book-length accounts were published from formerly enslaved people worldwide. Before the

, some authors wrote fictional accounts of slavery to create support for abolitionism. The prime example is ''

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U ...

'' (1852) by

Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel '' Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852), which depicts the har ...

. The success of her novel and the social tensions of the time brought a response by white Southern writers, such as

William Gilmore Simms William Gilmore Simms (April 17, 1806 – June 11, 1870) was an American writer and politician from the American South who was a "staunch defender" of slavery. A poet, novelist, and historian, his ''History of South Carolina'' served as the defin ...

and Mary Eastman, who published what were called

anti-Tom novels Anti-Tom literature consists of the 19th century pro- slavery novels and other literary works written in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's '' Uncle Tom's Cabin''. Also called plantation literature, these writings were generally written by auth ...

. Both kinds of novels were bestsellers in the 1850s.

Tales of religious redemption

From the 1770s to the 1820s, slave narratives generally gave an account of a spiritual journey leading to Christian redemption. The authors usually characterized themselves as Africans rather than slaves, as most were born in Africa. Examples include: * Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, ''A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert "Ukawsaw Gronniosaw", an African Prince'',

Bath, England Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

, 1772 *

Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano (; c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa (), was a writer and abolitionist from, according to his memoir, the Eboe (Igbo) region of the Kingdom of Benin (today southern Nigeria). Enslaved a ...

, ''

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano ''The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African'', first published in 1789 in London,

'',

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, 1789 * Venture Smith, ''A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America'',

New London New London may refer to: Places United States *New London, Alabama *New London, Connecticut *New London, Indiana *New London, Iowa *New London, Maryland *New London, Minnesota *New London, Missouri *New London, New Hampshire, a New England town ** ...

, 1798 * Jeffrey Brace, ''The Blind African Slave, Or Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace'', as told to Benjamin F. Prentiss, Esq.,

St. Albans, Vermont St. Albans, Vermont may refer to: * St. Albans (town), Vermont, established 1763, a town in Franklin County, Vermont, U.S. *St. Albans (city), Vermont, established 1902, a city in Franklin County, Vermont, U.S. See also * St. Albans Bay, Vermont, ...

, 1810; edited and with an introduction by Kari J. Winter, Madison, WI:

University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic community; works of fiction, memoir and ...

, 2004, * John Jea, ''The Life, History, and Unparalleled Sufferings of John Jea, the African Preacher'', 1811 * Greensbury Washington Offley, ''A Narrative of the Life and Labors of the Rev. G. W. Offley, a Colored Man, Local Preacher and Missionary'', 1859 Some more recent narratives, such as Petro Kilekwa's ''Slave Boy to Priest: The Autobiography of Padre Petro Kilekwa'' (1937), followed a similar theme.

Tales to inspire the abolitionist movement

From the mid-1820s, writers consciously chose the autobiographical form to generate enthusiasms for the

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

movement. Some writers adopted literary techniques, including the use of fictionalized dialogue. Between 1835 and 1865 more than 80 such narratives were published. Recurrent features include: slave auctions, the break-up of families, and frequently two accounts of escapes, one of which is successful. As this was the period of the forced migration of an estimated one million slaves from the

Upper South The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern and lower Midwestern United States. They differ from the Deep South and Atlantic coastal plain by terrain, history, econom ...

to the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the wa ...

through the internal

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

, the experiences of auctions and separation of families were common to many. Examples include: * William Grimes, ''Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave'', New York, 1825 * Solomon Bayley, ''A Narrative of Some Remarkable Incidents in the Life of Solomon Bayley, Formerly a Slave in the State of Delaware, North America'', 1825 *

Mary Prince Mary Prince (c. 1 October 1788 – after 1833) was a British abolitionist and autobiographer, born in Bermuda to a slave family of African descent. After being sold a number of times, and being moved around the Caribbean, she was brought to Engl ...

, ''The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave'', London, 1831 * Charles Ball, ''Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, A Black Man'', Lewistown, 1836 * Moses Roper, ''A Narrative of Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper from American Slavery'', London, 1837 * Lunsford Lane, ''The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly of Raleigh, N.C. Embracing an Account of His Early Life, the Redemption by Purchase of Himself and Family from Slavery, and His Banishment from the Place of His Birth for the Crime of Wearing a Colored Skin'', 1842 *

, ''

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave ''Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass'' is an 1845 memoir and treatise on abolition written by famous orator and former slave Frederick Douglass during his time in Lynn, Massachusetts. It is generally held to be the most famous of a number ...

'', Boston, 1845 *

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

and Milton Clarke, ''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, One of the So-Called Christian States of North America.'' Boston, 1846 *

William Wells Brown William Wells Brown (c. 1814 – November 6, 1884) was a prominent abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky, near the town of Mount Sterling, Brown escap ...

, ''Narrative of William Wells Brown, a Fugitive Slave'', Boston, 1847 *

Henry Box Brown Henry Box Brown (c. 1815 – June 15, 1897) was a 19th-century Virginia slave who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate in 1849 to abolitionists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For a short tim ...

, ''Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown'', Boston, 1849 *

Josiah Henson Josiah Henson (June 15, 1789 – May 5, 1883) was an author, abolitionist, and minister. Born into slavery, in Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, he escaped to Upper Canada (now Ontario) in 1830, and founded a settlement and laborer's scho ...

, ''

The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself ''The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself'' is a slave narrative written by Josiah Henson, who would later become famous for being the basis of the title character from Harriet Beecher St ...

'', Boston, 1849 *

Henry Bibb Henry Walton Bibb (May 10, 1815 in Shelby County, Kentucky – August 1,1854 in Windsor) was an American author and abolitionist who was born a slave. Bibb told his life story in his narrative ''The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb: An American ...

, ''Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave'', New York, 1849 * James W. C. Pennington, ''The Fugitive Blacksmith, or Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington'', London, 1849 *Henry Watson, '' Narrative of Henry Watson, A Fugitive Slave'', Boston, 1848. * Solomon Northup, ''

Twelve Years a Slave ''Twelve Years a Slave'' is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and written by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York state, details himself being tricked to go to Washington, D. ...

'', Auburn, and

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

, and London, 1853 * John Brown, ''Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Now in England'', 1855 *''The Life of John Thompson, A Fugitive Slave'',

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

, 1855 *Kate E. R. Pickard, ''The Kidnapped and the Ransomed, Being the Personal Recollections of Peter Still and his Wife "Vina," after Forty Years of Slavery'', New York, 1856 *

Jermain Wesley Loguen Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen (February 5, 1813 – September 30, 1872), born Jarm Logue, in slavery, was an African-American abolitionist and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and an author of a slave narrative. Biogr ...

, ''The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman, a Narrative of Real Life'', 1859 *

Ellen and William Craft Ellen Craft (1826–1891) and William Craft (September 25, 1824 – January 29, 1900) were American fugitives who were born and enslaved in Macon, Georgia. They escaped to the North in December 1848 by traveling by train and steamboat, arriving ...

, ''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 ''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by herself'' is an autobiography by Harriet Jacobs, a mother and fugitive slave, published in 1861 by L. Maria Child, who edited the book for its author. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent. The ...

'', Boston, 1861 * John Andrew Jackson, ''The Experience of a Slave in South Carolina'', London, 1862 * Jacob D. Green, ''Narrative of the Life of J. D. Green, a Runaway Slave from Kentucky'',

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

, 1864 *"Recollections of Slavery by a Runaway Slave", ''The Emancipator'', August 23, September 13, September 20, October 11, October 18, 1838, http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/runaway/menu.html, retrieved 09/15/2014

Tales of progress

SlaveNarrativeTheExperienceOfThomasHJones1871

Following the defeat of the slave states of the Confederate South, the authors had less need to convey the evils of slavery. Some gave a sentimental account of plantation life and ended with the narrator adjusting to the new life of freedom. The emphasis of writers shifted conceptually toward a recounting of individual and racial progress rather than securing freedom. Examples include: *

James Mars James Mars (March 3, 1790 – May 27, 1880) was an American slave narrative author and political activist. Born into slavery in Canaan, Connecticut, he gained his freedom in 1811. In 1864, he published his memoir ''A Life of James Mars, a Slave ...

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

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

, 1864 * Paul Jennings, ''A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison'', 1865 * William Parker, ''The Freedman's Story'', published in ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', 1866 *

Elizabeth Keckley Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (February 1818 – May 1907) was an American seamstress, activist, and writer who lived in Washington, D.C. She was best known as the personal dressmaker and confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln. Born into slavery, she was ow ...

, ''Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House'', 1868 *

William Still William Still (October 7, 1821 – July 14, 1902) was an African-American abolitionist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, businessman, writer, historian and civil rights activist. Before the Ameri ...

, '' The Underground Railroad Records'', 1872, recounts the experiences of hundreds of slaves * James Lindsay Smith, ''Autobiography of James L. Smith'', 1881, published by the ''

Norwich Bulletin ''The Bulletin'' is a daily newspaper covering eastern Connecticut, United States, based in the city of Norwich and owned by Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Wash ...

'' *

, '' From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or, Struggles for Freedom'', 1892 — this is unique as the only first-person account of a successful

Louis Hughes Louis Hughes (1832-1913) was an African-American slave born in Virginia. He is the author of the memoir ''Thirty Years a Slave''. Biography Hughes was born in 1832 to a white plantation owner and black slave in Charlottesville, Virginia. He w ...

, ''Thirty Years a Slave: From Bondage to Freedom'',

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

, 1897 *

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

, '' Up From Slavery'', Garden City, New York, 1901 * Sam Aleckson, ''Before the War, and After the Union: An Autobiography'', Boston, 1929

WPA slave narratives

During the

of the 1930s, the

Works Projects Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) employed writers and researchers from the Federal Writers' Project to interview and document the stories of African Americans who were former slaves. Most had been children when the Thirteenth Amendment was passed. Produced between 1936 and 1938, the narratives recount the experiences of more than 2,300 former slaves. Some interviews were recorded; 23 of 26 known audio recordings are held by the

American Folklife Center The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife". The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the library in 1928 as a repo ...

of the

. The last interview of a former slave was with Fountain Hughes, then 101, in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1949."Interview with Fountain Hughes, Baltimore, Maryland, June 11, 1949"
American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, World Digital Library. Retrieved May 26, 2013. He was a grandson of a slave owned by President

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

North American slave narratives as travel literature

Slave narratives inherently involved travel and form a significant type of

travel writing Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...

. As John Cox says in ''Traveling South'', "travel was a necessary prelude to the publication of a narrative by a slave, for slavery could not be simultaneously experienced and written." Where many travel narratives are written by privileged travelers, slave narratives show people traveling despite significant legal barriers to their actions, and in this way are a distinct and essential element in how travel narratives formed the American character.

North African slave narratives

In comparison to North American and Caribbean slave narratives, the

North African North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...

slave narratives in English were written by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and American white slaves captured (often at sea or through

) and enslaved in North Africa in the 18th and early 19th centuries. These narratives have a distinct form in that they highlight the "otherness" of the

Muslim slave trade The history of slavery in the Muslim world began with institutions inherited from pre-Islamic Arabia;Lewis 1994Ch.1 and the practice of keeping slavery, slaves subsequently developed in radically different ways, depending on social-political fac ...

rs, whereas the African-American slave narratives often call slave traders to account as fellow

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

. Narratives focused on the central themes of freedom and liberty which drew inspiration from the American Revolution. Since the narratives include the recurrence of themes and events, quoting, and relying heavily upon each other it is believed by scholars that the main source of information was other narratives more so than real captivities. Female captives were depicted as

Gothic fiction Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of e ...

characters clinging to the hope of freedom thus more relatable to the audience. Examples include: * *''A True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mahometans'' by Joseph Pitts (1663–1735) tells his capture as a boy age 14 or 15 by pirates while fishing off Newfoundland. His sale as a slave and his life under three different masters in North Africa, and his travels to Mecca are all described. *'' Tyrkja-Gudda'', 1952 and 2001 * Thomas Pellow, ''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 Maria Martin who was six years a slave in Algiers; two of which she was confined in a dismal dungeon, loaded with irons, by the command of an inhuman Turkish officer. Written by herself. To which is added, a concise history of Algiers, with the manners and customs of the people,'' 1812 *Captain James Riley, '' Sufferings in Africa'', 1815 *''

The Narrative of Robert Adams ''The Narrative of Robert Adams'' is a memoir by American sailor Robert Adams first published in 1816. The narrative is the story of the adventures of Adams, then a twenty-five-year-old American sailor who claimed to be enslaved in North Africa ...

, 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'', 1816 *

James Leander Cathcart James Leander Cathcart (1 June 1767 – 6 October 1843) was an Irish-American diplomat, slave, and sailor. He is notable for his narrative as a slave in Algiers for eleven years. Revolutionary War Cathcart was born in Mount Murragh, County West ...

, ''The Captives, Eleven Years a Prisoner in Algiers'', published in 1899, many years after his captivity

Women's slave narratives

Narratives by enslaved women include the memoirs of Harriet Jacobs, Mary Prince, Mattie J. Jackson, and "old Elizabeth," among others. In her narrative, Mary Prince, a Bermuda-born woman and slave discusses her deep connection with her master's wife and the pity she felt for the wife as she witnessed the "ill-treatment" the wife suffered at the hands of her husband.Prince, Mary. ''The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave: Related by Herself'', University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central. Prince was taught to read by Moravian missionaries. Literacy, however, was not a common theme for all enslaved women. The life story of "old Elizabeth" was transcribed from her oral account at the age of 97.

Other historical slave narratives

As slavery has been practised all over the world for millennia, some narratives cover places and times other than these main two. One example is the account given by

John R. Jewitt John Rodgers Jewitt (21 May 1783 – 7 January 1821) was an English armourer who entered the historical record with his memoirs about the 28 months he spent as a captive of Maquinna of the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) people on what is now the Britis ...

, an English

armourer Historically, an armourer is a person who makes personal armour, especially plate armour. In modern terms, an armourer is a member of a military or police force who works in an armoury and maintains and repairs small arms and weapons systems, ...

enslaved for years by

Maquinna Maquinna (also transliterated Muquinna, Macuina, Maquilla) was the chief of the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Nootka Sound, during the heyday of the maritime fur trade in the 1780s and 1790s on the Pacific Northwest Coast. The name means "possessor of ...

of the Nootka people in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

. The ''

Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available ...

'' calls his memoir a "classic of captivity literature" and it is a rich source of information about the

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

. *''Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt, only survivor of the crew of the ship Boston, during a captivity of nearly three years among the savages of Nootka Sound: with an account of the manners, mode of living, and religious opinions of the natives.'' Middletown, Connecticut, printed by Loomis and Richards, 1815 Maria ter Meetelen (1704 in Amsterdam – fl. 1751), was a Dutch writer of an autobiography. Her biography is considered to be a valuable witness statement of the life of a former slave (1748). * Maria ter Meetelen, ''The Curious and Amazing Adventures of Maria ter Meetelen; Twelve Years a Slave (1731- 43)'', Translated and Introduced by Caroline Stone. (Hardinge Simpole, 2010

Contemporary slave narratives

Nonfiction

A contemporary slave narrative is a recent memoir written by a former slave, or ghost writer, ghost-written on their behalf. Modern areas of the world in which slavery occurs include the Sudan. ''Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity – and My Journey to Freedom in America'' (2003) by

Francis Bok Francis Piol Bol Bok (born February 1979), a Dinka tribesman and native of South Sudan, was a slave for ten years but became an abolitionist and author living in the United States. On May 15, 1986, he was captured and enslaved at the age of seven ...

and Edward Tivnan, and ''Slave'' by

Mende Nazer Mende Nazer (born c. 1982) is a UK-resident, Sudanese author and human rights activist. Nazer was a slave in Sudan and in London for eight years. She later co-wrote the 2002 book ''Slave: My True Story''. Abduction Nazer is a Nuba woman from a ...

and Damien Lewis, describe from slavery experiences in the Sudan. "Another Slave Narrative", a film series, was launched by filmmaker Michelle Jackson on December 18, 2016. Jackson, inspired by an interview with a former slave, decided to present the stories of previously enslaved people in a series of short films. A cast of 22 actors of mixed sex, race, and age, read out individual slaves' interviews from the Slave Narrative Collection which includes more than 2,300 interviews conducted from 1936–38. Jackson's aim is to document every single fate and hence approach the taboo of slavery, and keep the memory of the slaves alive through these videos.

Fictional

'' The Underground Railroad'' by

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

winner

Colson Whitehead Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead (born November 6, 1969) is an American novelist. He is the author of eight novels, including his 1999 debut work '' The Intuitionist''; '' The Underground Railroad'' (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Awar ...

takes place in an

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

version of the 19th century. Cora, a slave on a cotton farm in Georgia escapes via the

. The novel was well received. It was said to possess "the chilling, matter-of-fact power of the slave narratives collected by the Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s, with echoes of Toni Morrison's '' Beloved''" and could be considered as a modern-tale fictional slave narrative.

Neo-slave narratives

A neo-slave narrative — a term coined by Ishmael Reed while working on his 1976 novel Flight to Canada and used by him in a 1984 interview — is a modern fictional work set in the slavery era by contemporary authors or substantially concerned with depicting the experience or the effects of enslavement in the New World. The works are largely classified as

s, but may pertain to poetical works as well. The renaissance of the postmodern slave narratives in the 20th century was a means to deal retrospectively with slavery, and to give a fictional account of historical facts from the first-person perspective. Examples include: * Madison Smartt Bell, '' All Souls' Rising'' (1995), first of trilogy about the Haitian Revolution * David Bradley, ''

The Chaneysville Incident ''The Chaneysville Incident'' is a 1981 novel by David Bradley. The novel won the 1982 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. It concerns a black historian who investigates an incident involving the death of his father and a prior incident involving th ...

'' (1981) *

Octavia E. Butler Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction author and a multiple recipient of the Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowshi ...

, '' Kindred'' (1979) * Noni Carter, ''Good Fortune'' (2010), young adult novel * David Anthony Durham, '' Walk Through Darkness'' (2002) *

Ernest J. Gaines Ernest James Gaines (January 15, 1933 – November 5, 2019) was an American author whose works have been taught in college classrooms and translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese. Four of his works we ...

, ''

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman ''The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman'' is a 1971 novel by Ernest J. Gaines. The story depicts the struggles of African Americans as seen through the eyes of the narrator, a woman named Jane Pittman. She tells of the major events of her life f ...

'' (1971) * Alex Haley, '' Roots: The Saga of an American Family'' (1976) * Marie-Elena John, '' Unburnable'' (2006) *

Edward P. Jones Edward Paul Jones (born October 5, 1950) is an American novelist and short story writer. His 2003 novel '' The Known World'' received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the International Dublin Literary Award. Biography Edward Paul Jones was born ...

, ''

The Known World ''The Known World'' is a 2003 historical novel by Edward P. Jones. Set in Virginia during the antebellum era, it examines the issues regarding the ownership of Black slaves by both white and Black Americans. The book was published to acclaim, wh ...

'' (2003) *

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...

, '' Beloved'' (1987) *

William Styron William Clark Styron Jr. (June 11, 1925 – November 1, 2006) was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work. Styron was best known for his novels, including: * '' Lie Down in Darkness'' (1951), his acclaimed fi ...

, '' Confessions of Nat Turner'' (1967) *

Natasha Trethewey Natasha Trethewey (born April 26, 1966) is an American poet who was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 2012 and again in 2013. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her 2006 collection ''Native Guard'', and she is a former Poet L ...

, '' Native Guard'' (2006) *

Margaret Walker Margaret Walker (Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander by marriage; July 7, 1915 – November 30, 1998) was an American poet and writer. She was part of the African-American literary movement in Chicago, known as the Chicago Black Renaissance. H ...

, ''

Jubilee A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of y ...

'' (1966) * Sherley Anne Williams, '' Dessa Rose'' (1986) *

Évelyne Trouillot Évelyne Trouillot (born January 2, 1954) is a Haitian author, writing in French and Creole. Biography Évelyne Trouillot was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, January 2, 1954. She was the daughter of Ernst Trouillot and Anne-Marie Morisset. After c ...

, '' The Infamous Rosalie'' (2003) * Manu Herbstein, '' Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade'' (2001) * Manu Herbstein, '' Brave Music of a Distant Drum'' (2011) *

, '' The Underground Railroad'' (2016)

References

External links

"Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936–1938"
''American Memory'', Library of Congress.
"North American Slave Narratives, Beginnings to 1920"
''Documenting the American South'', University of North Carolina.

– WPA oral histories of former US slaves collected in the 1930s, American Studies, University of Virginia.
eTexts
– Oral histories of former US slaves collected in the 1930s by the

Work Projects Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, in ...

hosted at

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

.
University of South Florida Libraries: Florida Slave Narratives
Narratives of African-Americans who spent their childhood and teenage years as slaves. {{Authority control American literature Cultural history of the United States Oral history African-American cultural history

Narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional ( fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc. ...

Literary genres

As a literary genre

North American slave narratives

Tales of religious redemption

Tales to inspire the abolitionist movement

Tales of progress

WPA slave narratives

North American slave narratives as travel literature

North African slave narratives

Women's slave narratives

Other historical slave narratives

Contemporary slave narratives

Nonfiction

Fictional

Neo-slave narratives

See also

Literature

Authors of slave narratives

Other

References

External links