Lately I have been reading a lot of published slave narratives.
These are not to be confused with the WPA slave narratives from
the 1930s that many of us are familiar with. I am referring to
slave narratives that were written and published from the mid
1800’s through the mid 1900s by slaves and former slaves, many
of which who had fled slavery. These are books that were were
popular during that timeframe, especially as a part of the
burgeoning anti-slavery movement. We probably know about the
most popular, like Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery and
Frederick Douglass’ autobiography. But I think we forget—I know
I did—that this is primary information out of the mouths of
slaves, and also that there were hundreds more like this
published. The University of North Carolina has a wonderful
online collection entitled “North American Slave Narratives.” It
is apart of the collection entitled “Documenting the American
South.” In the Slave Narratives, they have collected and
displayed all the known existing slave