“A magisterial and landmark work, one that merits wide and thoughtful readership not only by historians, but, more important, by those of us who count on historians to tell us truly about our past.”—New York Times “A testament to the resilience of the black spirit, faced with a primitive and largely conscienceless regime.”—Bertram Wyatt-Brown, South Atlantic Quarterly “This volume does much more than merely present a rich collection of judiciously selected and skillfully edited sources of the history of slavery; in the process it reveals a host of large-as-life slaves and ex-slaves: Kale, the precocious eleven-year-old Mende of the Amistad rebels, who quickly learned to write eloquent and polished English; Harry McMillan of Beaufort, South Carolina, who talked frankly of black love and marriage; Charlotte Burris of Kentucky, so ‘afflicted’ that her husband was permitted to buy her for only $25.00—‘as much as I was worth,’ she self-effacingly said; and many more. This illumination of the slave as an individual is really what the book is all about.”—Journal of Southern History “A mammoth presentation of two centuries of slave recollections . . . extraordinary firsthand narratives that should become the premier reference volume on the slave experience for years to come.”—Columbia (SC) State “The largest collection of annotated and authenticated accounts of slaves ever published in one volume. . . . So valuable a compilation is this study that its real worth cannot be measured for some time to come.”—Richmond News Leader
... American Colonial History at Tulane University. She specializes in the French Atlantic and circum-Caribbean. She is ... Early American Convent: Marie Madeleine Hachard and the New Orleans Ursulines, 1727–1760 (LSU Press 2007). She is ...
Even the most cursory review of black literary production during the nineteenth century indicates that its primary concerns were the issues of slavery, racial subjugation, abolitionist politics and liberation.
Vivid descriptions of the horrors of slave auctions, and many other unforgettable and sometimes unrepeatable details of slave life. Accompanied by 32 starkly compelling photographs.
I work with truly exceptional teachers and scholars in the Hunter English Department who have enhanced the book in many ways. I am lucky to say that I feel the support of the whole department in all of my scholarly endeavors, ...
"Dey wuz a grove o' post-oak timber, 'bout five, or six acres, all cleaned out; an' in der, dey raised bear cubs. ... Us'tuh be a coup'la pedluh men come 'round' wuth they packs. ... Dah wuz de' blue-coats' ; some Page 3.
Analyses the relationships among the socio-historical contexts, generic forms, and rhetorical strategies of British West Indian slave narratives.
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.
-Norman R. Yetman, American Memory, Library of Congress This paperback edition of all of the Tennessee narratives is reprinted in facsimile from the typewritten pages of the interviewers, just as they were originally typed.
The stories of hundreds of African Americans who lived in bondage are preserved in this powerful 1839 chronicle.
This genre, an exciting and too little known part of American literature and history, has played an important role in the development of such distinguished authors as Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison.