Slave Narratives

Slave Narratives and Black struggle in the XIX Century

a Slave"

"I was born

• Euro-American Slave Trade, from the 16th to the 19th centuries
• Middle Passage
• In the US:
• since colonial era, slavery continued after the founding of the USA, abolished in 1865
• Slave trade, abolished in 1807-1808 (but continued, more or less illegally, until right before the Civil War)
• Emancipation:
• Abolitionism (white and black): propaganda and legal efforts
• Hundreds of rebellions and uprisings: Haitian Revolution (1791-1804); Igbo Landing (1803); Nat Turner's Rebellion (1831); Amistad seizure (1839)
• Escape from the platantion South to the North and/or to non-slave countries

Atlantic Slave Trade

• Freed and fugitive slaves in the antebellum and Civil War periods
• The Underground Railroad (early- to mid-19th century): a clandestine system through which about 100,000 slaves escaped from their captivity in Southern states.
• The Overseas Freeway (cf. Marcus Rediker): especially in the antebellum period > escape by sea as one of the first, biggest, and more successful solidarity migrant movement (East coast of the US, roughly from Savannah to Boston)

Escaping slavery in the 19th century

Elizabeth Catlett, In Sojourner Truth I fought for the rights of women as well as Negroes, 1947

• one of the few African American women to participate in both the abolition of slavery and women's rights movements;
• born a slave (thus unschooled). BUT: an impressive speaker, preacher, activist, and abolitionist;
• Truth and other black women played vital roles in the Civil War, and their activity was fundamental to the Union army's success.
• Speech "Ain't I a Woman?" delivered at the 1851 Women's Rights Convention, questioning the treatment reserved to black women in US society. No official version of the speech.

Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883):"Ain't I a Woman?"

• Abolitionist, social activist, as well as a spy and armed scout for the Union Army, and the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad
• Her grandmother, Modesty, was brought to America on a slave ship. Of Tubman’s eight siblings, three sisters were sold.

• In one childhood incident her head was injured, and she suffered neurological problems for the rest of her life, but she also attributed her injury to contributing to her great courage and sense of purpose.
• 1844: married John Tubman, a free man, and she changed her first name to Harriet, after her mother. When her owner died, she and two of her brothers fled to free territory. After seeing a fugitive slave ad, the brothers returned, taking her with them (reluctantly). Eventually, she sought freedom again. She chose to continue helping slaves cross into free territory as her personal mission.

Harriet Tubman (c. 1822–1913)

Elizabeth Catlett, Untitled (Harriet Tubman), 1953

Harriet Tubman as Moses

• Narratives by fugitive slaves before the Civil War and by former slaves in the postbellum era (fundamental for 18- and 19-century US history and literature)

• As historical sources: first-hand experience in documenting slave life primarily in the US South. Increasingly in the 1840s and 1850s: also the struggles of black people in the North (see also: fugitives from the South and the reality of racism in the so-called "free states"). After the Civil War: former slaves continued to record their experiences under slavery.
• As literature: one of the most extensive and influential traditions in African American literature and culture. Slave narratives and their fictional descendants (neo-slave narratives) have been fundamental in national debates about slavery, freedom, equality, civil rights, and US identity for decades—and somehow they still are.

Slave Narratives

• Slave, ex-slave (and neo-slave) narratives: essential for discourses on national identity and race issues in the US, both intra-textually and extra-textually (see: the problem with Uncle Tom's Cabin).
• Some notable slave and ex-slave narratives:
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
• The Narrative of William W. Brown, An American Slave (1847)
• The confessions of Nat Turner (1831) [published by attorney Thomas Ruffin Gray after Turner's execution]
• Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
• Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery (1901)

Slave Narratives

Black autobiographies:

• Richard Wright's Black Boy (1945)
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)

Neo-slave narratives:

• Margaret Walker's Jubilee (1966)
• Ernest J. Gaines's The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971)
• Sherley Ann Williams's Dessa Rose (1986)
• Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987)
• Charles Johnson's Middle Passage (1990)

• The most important African American leader of the XIX century.
• Three autobiographies:
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845)
• My Bondage and My Freedom (1855)
• The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881)
• Writer, public peaker, civil rights' activist (abolitionist and anti-Jim Crow activities)
• Complex sense of attachment to the South: "Nothing but an intense love of personal freedom keeps us [fugitive slaves] from the South" (1848).

Frederick Douglass (1817/18–1895)

• Born a slave in Edenton, North Carolina, and died free in Washington, D. C.
• The first woman to write a slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861).
• Enslaved womanhood: sexual abuse and molestation by white men.

Harriet Jacobs / Linda Brent (c. 1813–1897)

“Northerners know nothing at all about Slavery. They think it is perpetual bondage only. They have no conception of the depth of degradation involved in that word, Slavery; if they had, they would never cease their efforts until so horrible a system was overthrown.”A Woman of North Carolina “Rise up, ye women that are at ease! Hear my voice, ye careless daughters! Give ear unto my speech.” Isaiah 32:9

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Harriet Jacobs

Frederick Douglass

I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away. My father was a carpenter, and considered so intelligent and skilful in his trade, that, when buildings out of the common line were to be erected, he was sent for from long distances, to be head workman. On condition of paying his mistress two hundred dollars a year, and supporting himself, he was allowed to work at his trade, and manage his own affairs. His strongest wish was to purchase his children; but, though he several times offered his hard earnings for that purpose, he never succeeded. In complexion my parents were a light shade of brownish yellow, and were termed mulattoes. They lived together in a comfortable home; and, though we were all slaves, I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them for safe keeping, and liable to be demanded of them at any moment.

I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest-time, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time. A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it. He deemed all such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit. The nearest estimate I can give makes me now between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age. I come to this, from hearing my master say, some time during 1835, I was about seventeen years old. My mother was named Harriet Bailey. She was the daughter of Isaac and Betsey Bailey, both colored, and quite dark. My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather. My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother.

(From chapter VI)

The secrets of slavery are concealed like those of the Inquisition. My master was, to my knowledge, the father of eleven slaves. But did the mothers dare to tell who was the father of their children? Did the other slaves dare to allude to it, except in whispers among themselves? No, indeed! They knew too well the terrible consequences.

(From chapter V)

But where could I turn for protection? No matter whether the slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as her mistress. In either case, there is no shadow of law to protect her from insult, from violence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by fiends who bear the shape of men. The mistress, who ought to protect the helpless victim, has no other feelings towards her but those of jealousy and rage. The degradation, the wrongs, the vices, that grow out of slavery, are more than I can describe. They are greater than you would willingly believe. Surely, if you credited one half the truths that are told you concerning the helpless millions suffering in this cruel bondage, you at the north would not help to tighten the yoke. You surely would refuse to do for the master, on your own soil, the mean and cruel work which trained bloodhounds and the lowest class of whites do for him at the South.