Slave Narratives
Slave narratives have gained renewed attention recently because of the 2013 Oscar-winning adaptation of Solomon Northrup's unforgettable memoir 12 Years a Slave. Like the book (available online here), the film presents a graphic and detailed account of the life of enslaved people in the deep South, unfiltered by the qualifications of white apologists.
Slave
narratives like this one are more than just a source of historical information;
they constitute an important movement in American literature. As professors
Steven Mintz and Sara McNeil observe,
One of the earliest forms of African American literature was the slave narrative, graphic first-person accounts of life in bondage, written by former slaves, including William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, and Josiah Henson (he was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s model for Uncle Tom). These volumes not only awoke readers to the hardships and cruelties of life under slavery, they also described the ingenious strategies that fugitive slaves used to escape from bondage. William and Ellen Craft, for example, disguised themselves as master and slave; Henry “Box” Brown had himself crated in a box and shipped north. Mintz and McNeil's Digital History site includes a section on slavery with a "Documents" page containing excerpts from many of the most important slave narratives. [Alternate link here]None of these passages is particularly long, but together they give a surprisingly wide-ranging picture of the life of enslaved African Americans in the 19th century. Some of the most compelling accounts are the ones below.
Conditions of Life How Cotton Was Raised on a Louisiana Plantation by Solomon Northrup (1853) "There is no such thing as rest" [Alternate link here] A Description of Everyday Life on a Maryland Plantation by Josiah Henson (1877) "Our beds were collections of straw and old rags" [Alternate link here] Condition on a Plantation outside of Washington, D.C. by Francis Henderson (1856) "I have known him to kick my aunt, an old woman who had raised the nursed him" [Alternate link here] A Slave Auction by James Martin (1937) "The slaves are put in stalls like...cattle" [Alternate link here] Family His Experiences as a Slave Child by Lunsford Lane (1842) "I discovered the difference between myself and my master's white children" [Alternate link here] The Impact of Slavery Upon Slave Families by Lewis Clarke (1846) "There is but...little scruple of separating families" [Alternate link here] An Overseer Attempts to Molest His Mother by Josiah Henson (1877) "Her screams aroused my father at his distant work" [Alternate link here] Religion The Difference Between the Christianity Taught by Masters and Practiced by Slaves by Peter Randolph (1893) "If the slaves are caught praying to God, they are whipped" [Alternate link here] Conjuring Under Slavery by Henry Bibb (1849) "Many of them believe in what they call 'conjuration,' tricking, and witchcraft" [Alternate link here] A Description of a Slave Funeral by Charles Ball (1858) "He cut a lock of hair from his head, [and] threw it upon the dead infant" [Alternate link here] Punishment The Implements Used to Punish Slaves by Lewis Clarke (1846) "She could relish a beating with a chair, the broom, tongs, shovel, shears...or a bunch of keys" [Alternate link here] How He Was Punished After Trying to Run Away by Moses Roper (1837) "The marks of this treatment still remain upon me" [Alternate link here] A “Bells and Horns” Device Used for Punishment by John Brown (1855) "At night I could not lie down to rest" [Alternate link here] Resistance and Flight His Battle with a "Negro-Breaker" by Frederick Douglass (1845) "At this moment--from whence came the spirit I don't know--I resolved to fight" [Alternate link here] Margaret Garner Kills One of Her Children Rather than Permit Her to be Returned to Slavery by Levi Coffin (1876) "She would kill herself and her children before she would return to bondage" [Alternate link here] Margaret Ward and her Infant Son Follow the North Star to Freedom by Eber Pettit (1879) "She would not be whipped, she would rather die" [Alternate link here] Henry "Box" Brown Escapes Slavery in a Small Box by William Still (1872) "He entered his box, which was...marked, 'This side up with care'" [Alternate link here] Life After Emancipation A Former Tennessee Slaves Decline His Master's Invitation to Return to His Plantation by Jourdan Anderson (1865) "We have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you" [Alternate link here] Henry Blake Describes His Life After Emancipation by Henry Blake (1937) "You had to take the white man's words and notes on everything" [Alternate link here] Elias Hill Testifies About the Ku Klux Klan Before a Congressional Committee by Elias Hill (1872) "He had a horsewhip, and he told me to pull up my shirt" [Alternate link here] A Separated Couple Unable to Reunite by Laura Spicer's husband (1869) "You know it never was our wishes to be separated from each other, and it never was our fault" [Alternate link here] |