Excerpts From Slave Narratives
Slave narratives are not only historical accounts of slavery in America; they also serve to remind us of the reality of the suffering that was created on our soil. These narratives are not simply textbook facts on the subject of slavery, but authentic personal accounts of what happened from people who not only suffered at the hands of their master’s lash: They also watched their children being taken from them or saw their grandparents being starved to death because they were unable to work. These first-hand accounts provide us with a glimpse into the cruelty of slavery so that we can more honestly deal with our past today.
It is not enough to just read the facts about slavery written in a textbook. Though the validity of these facts are not called into question, they do not get down to the true nature of what slavery was. It wasn’t just the act of one man owning another -- it was the story of a man being beaten for daring to take some bread for his starving family, or the tale of a girl trying to escape the clutches of her greedy master. It is not enough to try to understand these stories abstractly; we must read them first-hand if we are ever going to be able to understand the true tragedy of slavery. Slave narratives give us these first-hand accounts.
Not only are they a mirror into the truth, they are also a beacon of hope. They show us, over 100 years later, not only the importance of survival, -- a central theme in many slave narratives -- but also the importance of education; namely, the ability to read and write. The question arises in every slave narrative, “Why this slave?” “How did he/she get out while so many others were left to waste away as slaves?” And the answer is always education.
Every slave narrative we have ever come across deals heavily with the importance of reading and writing. Frederick Douglass talks about going to the store and bribing the poor white boys with food to teach him a lesson on reading until he had enough knowledge to look at a newspaper on his own. Harriet Jacobs states that her grandmother, a free slave, taught all her grandchildren to read and write when they were very young, before they were sent to the plantation to work; and Mary Prince discusses how without the ability to understand letters, she never would have had the wherewithal to get away from her master in England and seek freedom.
Many of the white masters looked down upon a slave learning to read and write, and reading these slave narratives shows exactly why. Once a slave had knowledge, they could better understand their situation, and wanted to escape. What’s more, the ability to read is a tool they can use to leave and to escape the cruelty that most slaves endured; the cruelty that we see so clearly in these slave narratives.
“He would stand by and give orders for a slave to be cruelly whipped, and assist in the punishment, without moving a muscle of his face; walking about and taking snuff with the greatest composure.”
-The History of Mary Price, Mary Prince, Mary Prince
“One day he (master) caught me teaching myself to write. He frowned, as if he was not well pleased; but I supposed he came to the conclusion that such an accomplishment might help advance his favorite scheme.”
-Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs
“Mrs. Auld, she very kindly commenced to teach me the A,B,C … Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further… I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty - to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man.”
-Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass
What these narratives, and many other slave narratives like them, share, is their ability to cut deep to the heart of the matter and show the reader -- students in the future who sit at desks, in learning institutions these slaves never would have dreamed of -- just what life was like. No textbook can describe what these former slaves describe; not only because their stories are so personal, but because they are so very human.
For more information on slave narratives, please refer to the links below:
- American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology - A comprehensive guide to American slave narratives.
- Born In Slavery - Slave narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project.
- North American Slave Narratives - Documents North American slave narratives particularly those in the South.
- Excerpts from Slave Narratives - Excerpts from actual slave narratives.
- The Slave Narrative - Comprehensive definitions and information on slave narratives.
- Slave Narratives and Uncle Tom's Cabin - Slave narratives and personal accounts of slavery.
- "Been Here So Long" - Slave narratives from the Works Progress.