The Slave's NarrativeCharles T. Davis, Henry Louis Gates Jr. These autobiographies of Afro-American ex-slaves comprise the largest body of literature produced by slaves in human history. 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. |
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Page xi
... story in their mouths . Let them know the heart of the poor slave — learn his secret thoughts — thoughts he dare not utter in the hearing of the white man ; let them slip by him in the silent watches of the night — converse with him in ...
... story in their mouths . Let them know the heart of the poor slave — learn his secret thoughts — thoughts he dare not utter in the hearing of the white man ; let them slip by him in the silent watches of the night — converse with him in ...
Page xix
... stories so as to become aware of our general story . I wouldn't have had to read a single slave narrative in order to create the narrative pattern of Invisible Man . It emerges from experience and from my own sense of literary form ...
... stories so as to become aware of our general story . I wouldn't have had to read a single slave narrative in order to create the narrative pattern of Invisible Man . It emerges from experience and from my own sense of literary form ...
Page xxiii
... stories so as to become aware of our general story . " Since the Renaissance in Europe , the act of writing has been consid- ered the visible sign of reason . This association has been consistently in- voked in Western aesthetic theory ...
... stories so as to become aware of our general story . " Since the Renaissance in Europe , the act of writing has been consid- ered the visible sign of reason . This association has been consistently in- voked in Western aesthetic theory ...
Page xxxi
... story of a slave -- of a slave who was nothing but a slave . Kendall did not know his historiography . By 1939 a number of historians had drawn upon the narratives of ex - slaves as historical data , despite the powerful strictures ...
... story of a slave -- of a slave who was nothing but a slave . Kendall did not know his historiography . By 1939 a number of historians had drawn upon the narratives of ex - slaves as historical data , despite the powerful strictures ...
Page 3
... stories of the American citi- zens imprisoned in Iran , are merely generic extensions of the slave nar- ratives , which ... story was true . From the 1750 account of Job Ben Solomon's release from slav- ery because of James Oglethorpe's ...
... stories of the American citi- zens imprisoned in Iran , are merely generic extensions of the slave nar- ratives , which ... story was true . From the 1750 account of Job Ben Solomon's release from slav- ery because of James Oglethorpe's ...
Contents
3 | |
2 The Slave Narratives as History | 35 |
Illustrations | 146 |
3 The Slave Narratives as Literature | 147 |
Bibliography | 319 |
Index | 331 |
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Common terms and phrases
abolitionist African Afro-American American Slave antebellum Anti-Slavery audience authenticating autobiography Bibb's Blassingame bondage Boston Canada Carolina character Charles Chesnutt Christian collection conventional Cugoano culture edition editor enslaved Equiano escape essay ex-slaves experience fact fiction former slaves Frederick Douglass freedom fugitive slave genre Harriet Beecher Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Jacobs Henry Bibb Henry Box Henry Box Brown historians human Ibid Incidents Jacobs James James W.C. Pennington John Josiah Henson Julius labor language letters literary literature lived Lobb London Manzano master ment mode narrator nature Negro novel oral plantation preface present published question race Rawick reader relations reveal scholars sense sentence Skundus slave community slave narratives slavery Solomon Northup South speech story Stowe's strategy style tale tell testimony tion tive tradition truth Uncle Tom Uncle Tom's Cabin voice William Wells Brown words writing written wrote York
Popular passages
Page 166 - I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely but too well...
Page xxiv - Again, let a man only consider what a difference there is between the life of men in the most civilized province of Europe, and in the wildest and most barbarous districts of New India; he will feel it be great enough to justify the saying that "man is a god to man," not only in regard of aid and benefit, but also by a comparison of condition.
Page 186 - Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries ? either a vine, figs ? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
Page xiii - 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.
Page 76 - Whereas if we approach a poet without this prejudice we shall often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously.
Page 297 - winner take nothing" that is the great truth of our country or of any country. Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.