Slave Narratives as Protest Writing

1
Slave Narratives as Protest Writing

• 1. Slave Narratives as Autobiography
• 2. Function of Narratives
• 3. Characteristics of Narratives
• 4. Audience and Voice
• 5. Gender and Slave Narratives

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Autobiography

• . . . autobiography must be understood as a
  recollective/narrative act in which the writer,
  from a certain point in his lifethe
  presentlooks back over the events of that life
  and recounts them in such a way as to show how
  history has led to this present state of being
  (James Olney, Autobiography)

3
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

• . . . The black slaves narrative came to be a
  communal utterance, a collective tale, rather
  than merely an individuals autobiography. Each
  slave author, in writing about his or her
  personal lifes experiences, simultaneously wrote
  on behalf of millions of silent slaves still held
  captive . . . All blacks would be judgedon their
  character, integrity, intelligence, manners and
  morals and their claim to warrant emancipationon
  this published evidence produced by one of their
  number. (Classic Slave Narratives 2)

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First Period 1770s-1820s

• Example The Life of Olaudah Equiano

• By the horrors of that trade was I first torn
  away from all the tender connections that were
  naturally dear to my heart but these, through
  the mysterious ways of Providence, I ought to
  regard as infinitely more than compensated by the
  introduction I have thence obtained in the
  knowledge of the Christian religion, and of a
  nation which, by its liberal sentiments, its
  humanity, its glorious freedom of its government,
  and its proficiency in arts and sciences, has
  exalted the dignity of human nature. (Classic
  Slave Narratives 17)

5
Second Period 1824-1865

• Example Narrative of the Life of Frederick
• Douglas

• The overseers name was Mr. Plummer. Mr. Plummer
• was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and
  a
• savage monster . . . . No words, no tears, no
  prayers,
• from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron
  heart
• from its bloody purpose. (Classic Slave
  Narratives
• 342-343)

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Third Period Post Civil War

• Example Up From Slavery

In the midst of my struggles and longing for an
education, a young coloured boy who had learned
to read in the State of Ohio came to Malden. As
soon as the coloured people found out that he
could read, a newspaper was secured, and at the
close of nearly every days work this young man
would be surrounded by a group of men and women
who were anxious to hear him read the news
contained in the papers. (358)
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5 Functions of Slave Narratives

• 1. To document the conditions of or truth
  about slavery
• 2. To encourage the abolition of slavery
• 3. To provide religious inspiration
• 4. To assert the narrators personhood and
• 5. To challenge stereotypes about blacks.

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NARRATIVE

• OF THE
• LIFE
• OF
• FREDERICK DOUGLASS,
• AN
• AMERICAN SLAVE.
• WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

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Frederick Douglass

• It was a new and special revelation, explaining
  dark
• and mysterious things, with which my youthful
• understanding had struggled in vain. I now
  understood
• what had been to me a most perplexing
  difficultyto
• wit, the white mans power to enslave the black
  man.
• It was a grand achievement, and I prized it
  highly.
• From that moment, I understood the pathway from
• slavery to freedom. (Classic Slave Narratives
  364)

10
Frederick Douglass

• This battle with Mr. Covey was the
• turning-point in my career as a slave. It
• rekindled the few expiring embers of
• freedom, and revived within me a sense
• of my own manhood. (Classic Slave
• Narratives 394)

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8 Characteristics of Slave Narratives

• 1. A preface as authenticating material/testimony
• 2. First sentence begins I was born . . .
• 3. Details of the first observed whipping
• 4. An account of a hardworking slave who refuses
  to
• be whipped
• 5. Details of the quest for literacy
• 6. Account of a slave auction
• 7. Description of attempts to escape
• 8. Appendix of documentary material