The Slave's Narrative

by Davis, Charles T.; Gates, Henry Louis

• ISBN13: 9780195066562
• ISBN10: 0195066561
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-02-21
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

These autobiographies of Afro-American ex-slaves comprise the largest body of literature produced by slaves in human history. The book consists of three sections: selected reviews of slave narratives, dating from 1750 to 1861; essays examining how such narratives serve as historical material; and essays exploring the narratives as literary artifacts.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Language of Slavery	p. xi
Written by Themselves: Views and Reviews, 1750-1861
The Life of Job Ben Solomon	p. 4
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African; Written by Himself	p. 5
The Life and Adventures of a Fugitive Slave	p. 6
Narrative of James Williams	p. 8
The Narrative of Juan Manzano	p. 15
Narratives of Fugitive Slaves	p. 19
Life of Henry Bibb	p. 28
The Life and Bondage of Frederick Douglass	p. 30
Kidnapped and Ransomed	p. 31
Linda: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself	p. 32
The Slave Narratives as History
On Dialect Usage	p. 37
The Art and Science of Reading WPA Slave Narratives	p. 40
History from Slave Sources	p. 48
Charles Chesnutt and the WPA Narratives: The Oral and Literate Roots of Afro-American Literature	p. 59
Using the Testimony of Ex-Slaves: Approaches and Problems	p. 78
Plantation Factories and the Slave Work Ethic	p. 98
The Making of a Fugitive Slave Narrative: Josiah Henson and Uncle Tom--A Case Study	p. 112
The Slave Narratives as Literature
"I Was Born": Slave Narratives, Their Status as Autobiography and as Literature	p. 148
Three West African Writers of the 1780s	p. 175
Crushed Geraniums: Juan Francisco Manzano and the Language of Slavery	p. 199
I Rose and Found My Voice: Narration, Authentication, and Authorial Control in Four Slave Narratives	p. 225
Autobiographical Acts and the Voice of the Southern Slave	p. 242
Text and Contexts of Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself	p. 262
The Slave Narrators and the Picaresque Mode: Archetypes for Modern Black Personae	p. 283
Singing Swords: The Literary Legacy of Slavery	p. 298
Bibliography	p. 319
Index	p. 331
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