North Carolina Slave Narratives

North Carolina Slave Narratives
Author: William L. Andrews
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2006-05-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0807876755

The autobiographies of former slaves contributed powerfully to the abolitionist movement in the United States, fanning national--even international--indignation against the evils of slavery. The four texts gathered here are all from North Carolina slaves and are among the most memorable and influential slave narratives published in the nineteenth century. The writings of Moses Roper (1838), Lunsford Lane (1842), Moses Grandy (1843), and the Reverend Thomas H. Jones (1854) provide a moving testament to the struggles of enslaved people to affirm their human dignity and ultimately seize their liberty. Introductions to each narrative provide biographical and historical information as well as explanatory notes. Andrews's general introduction to the collection reveals that these narratives not only helped energize the abolitionist movement but also laid the groundwork for an African American literary tradition that inspired such novelists as Toni Morrison and Charles Johnson.

North Carolina Slave Narratives

North Carolina Slave Narratives
Author: Federal Writers' Project
Publisher: Applewood Books
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 1557090203

Autobiographical accounts of former slaves compiled in the 1930s by the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration.

Slave Narratives (LOA #114)

Slave Narratives (LOA #114)
Author: William L. Andrews
Publisher: Library of America
Total Pages: 1066
Release: 2000-01-15
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9781883011765

The ten works collected in this volume demonstrate how a diverse group of writers challenged the conscience of a nation and laid the foundations of the African American literary tradition by expressing their in anger, pain, sorrow, and courage. Included in the volume: Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw; Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; The Confessions of Nat Turner; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; Narrative of William W. Brown; Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb; Narrative of Sojouner Truth; Ellen and William Craft's Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Narrative of the Life of J. D.Green. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Slavery Remembered

Slavery Remembered
Author: Paul D. Escott
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2000-11-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 080786420X

Slavery Remembered is the first major attempt to analyze the slave narratives gathered as part of the Federal Writers' Project. Paul Escott's sensitive examination of each of the nearly 2,400 narratives and his quantitative analysis of the narratives as a whole eloquently present the differing beliefs and experiences of masters and slaves. The book describes slave attitudes and actions; slave-master relationships; the conditions of slave life, including diet, physical treatment, working conditions, housing, forms of resistance, and black overseers; slave cultural institutions; status distinctions among slaves; experiences during the Civil War and Reconstruction; and the subsequent life histories of the former slaves. An important contribution to the study of American slavery, Slavery Remembered is an ideal classroom text for American history surveys as well as more specialized courses.

The North Carolina Slave Narratives Vol. 1 A-H

The North Carolina Slave Narratives Vol. 1 A-H
Author: Stephen Payseur
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2013-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781492977292

In 1935, as part of the WPA, President Roosevelt created the Federal Writers Project. This was a very ambitious program designed to put unemployed writers, editors, teachers and others to work. They were paid between $20 and $25 dollars per week on average. Over 6000 people were employed by the Federal Writers Project. Some later on became quite famous in the literary world. Among those were Conrad Aiken, Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Anna Bontemps, John Cheever, Malcolm Cowley, Edward Dahlberg, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude Mckay, Kenneth Patchen, Phillip Rahv, Kenneth Rexroth, Harold Rosenberg, John Steinbeck, Studs Terkel, Margaret Walker, Richard Wright, and Frank Yerby. One of the Writers Project best known projects was the Oral History Project. Interviewers went out all over the country talking to the “common” people to document their lives. Thousands of people in hundreds of groups were interviewed. One of these groups were former slaves. This book is a compilation of some of those interviews conducted in North Carolina. As you read them you will notice that the interviewers tried to write as the subjects spoke, in their own dialect. The former slaves used words and terms that are not considered politically correct in today's world. They may be offensive to some, but I hope not. It is how the subjects of the interviews actually spoke. In this book, the interviews are presented exactly as they were written during the years 1836-1938. They have not been edited. The writers at that time were instructed to stick to the exact words spoken by those interviewed. Editing it was feared would change the tone and meaning of the interview. So, here they are. If they give anyone offense, I sincerely apologize. I feel that these documents are far too important to be languishing in some collection, that most people will never see. It is my hope that you will find these stories compelling, fascinating, disturbing, interesting and an essential chronicle of an unpleasant and embarrassing period in our nation's history.

The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly of Raleigh, N.C

The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly of Raleigh, N.C
Author: Lunsford Lane
Publisher: Good Press
Total Pages: 50
Release: 2019-12-09
Genre: History
ISBN:

This book is a powerful autobiography penned by Lunsford Lane, an African-American entrepreneur tobacconist from North Carolina who bought freedom for himself and his family. His life and narrative shows the plight of slavery, even for the relatively privileged slaves.

Slave Narratives: Interviews with Former Slaves, North Carolina Narratives, Part 1

Slave Narratives: Interviews with Former Slaves, North Carolina Narratives, Part 1
Author: Work Projects Administration
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2012-12-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1300534621

After the Revolutionary War, millions of African descendent men and women remained slaves despite being freed by the English. Nearly 100 years later they were freed, but remained living in fear for their lives in the Southern States. This book details first hand accounts of what it was like to live under the hand of oppression and slavery. The language is harsh and direct, but shows what life truly was like by the stories and pictures of individuals who lived during this era. This book is for any history major or any individual who wants to find Americas dark past. It is filled with stories and language that may be disturbing to some, but shows the true life under slavery in America. This book has been left unedited as originally written in 1938-39.

Fifty Years in Chains

Fifty Years in Chains
Author: Charles Ball
Publisher:
Total Pages: 440
Release: 1858
Genre: Slavery
ISBN:

Fifty Years in Chains: Or, the Life of an American Slave (1859) was an abridged and unauthorized reprint of the earlier Slavery in the United States (1836). In the narratives, Ball describes his experiences as a slave, including the uncertainty of slave life and the ways in which the slaves are forced to suffer inhumane conditions. He recounts the qualities of his various masters and the ways in which his fortune depended on their temperament. As slave narrative scholar William L. Andrews has noted, Ball's oft-repeated narrative directly influenced the manner and matter of later fugitive slave.

The North Carolina Roots of African American Literature

The North Carolina Roots of African American Literature
Author: William L. Andrews
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2006-12-08
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0807877050

The first African American to publish a book in the South, the author of the first female slave narrative in the United States, the father of black nationalism in America--these and other founders of African American literature have a surprising connection to one another: they all hailed from the state of North Carolina. This collection of poetry, fiction, autobiography, and essays showcases some of the best work of eight influential African American writers from North Carolina during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In his introduction, William L. Andrews explores the reasons why black North Carolinians made such a disproportionate contribution (in quantity and lasting quality) to African American literature as compared to that of other southern states with larger African American populations. The authors in this anthology parlayed both the advantages and disadvantages of their North Carolina beginnings into sophisticated perspectives on the best and the worst of which humanity, in both the South and the North, was capable. They created an African American literary tradition unrivaled by that of any other state in the South. Writers included here are Charles W. Chesnutt, Anna Julia Cooper, David Bryant Fulton, George Moses Horton, Harriet Jacobs, Lunsford Lane, Moses Roper, and David Walker.