| Title | : | The Classic Slave Narratives-paperback |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0451528247 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780451528247 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 688 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1987 |
The Classic Slave Narratives-paperback Reviews
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This was one of the plaintive books that got me into reading slave narratives.
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This text is an immersion not only into an account of slavery for a little over a century, but also into the birth of a new genre of writing. There are four narratives labeled "Classic" in this volume, spanning the stories of two men and two women; born in Africa, the West Indies, and the United States; and traveling the world from crossing of the Mason-Dixon Line to expeditions to the North Pole. Something the introduction, and all four authors clarify throughout, is that despite their individual accounts, none are particular outside the system of slavery. Each of their stories can be taken as representative of the oppression caused by a system where men and women could OWN people as property. A truly eye-opening read.
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Reading something like The Classic Slave Narratives, first person narratives about lifetimes of racially motivated torture and abuse, is painful. I had to read slowly, usually only a few pages each day. This allowed me to digest what I’d read, to really feel each section, rather than growing numb; it also kept me from getting too depressed to read any further.
I’m glad I did. Classic Slave Narratives is painful, but in a very compelling way. Told in the first person, these four autobiographies gave me a chance to view a time long gone through the eyes of people I could relate to. While these narratives are about alien subjects like slavery, huge cotton plantations, and pirates, they’re also about familiar ones like families, lovers, and civil disobedience. I was with our protagonists all the way, holding my breath as they hid from cruel masters, cheering when they reunited with loved ones.
The exception is collection’s first autobiography, penned by a man named Gustavus Vassa. While any autobiography needs to be read with a grain of salt, because you can expect the writer to put themselves in a positive light, Gustavus really, really wanted readers to side with him. He paints himself as so perfect, so noble, so moral, that I had trouble believing his view of himself. This made his narrative less interesting, for me.
I recommend this book to pretty much anybody. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t get something out of at least one of the autobiographies inside.
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Elizabeth Reuter
Author,
The Demon of Renaissance Drive -
This book was one of my all time favorites that I've read this junior year. I loved each slave narrative because they each brought their own perspective and it was interesting for me to try and imagine myself in a time where I am made inferior to all other races. These memoirs really emphasized how hard African-Americans have struggled to reach Where we are today. It was also interesting to Heard the life of a slave from both genders so that we were able to compare and contrasts their struggles and the roles or jobs they took while residing on the plantation. Women's roles and struggles as a slave differed dramatically from than that of men. Women deep to take on the role as caretakers for the children or becoming house servants. I also learned why dopent seemed of much more value than a mâle slave. However I'm still having trouble understanding why White men found it of so much pleasure and interesting to sleep with women they felt were of an inferior race. What attracted them so much to women they claimed to be inferior.
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I can't recommend enough that everyone read slave narratives. If you're ever feeling sorry for yourself, you'll find yourself thinking of Frederick Douglass sleeping on a dirt floor with no blanket during Maryland winters, or of the runaway slave who lived in secret lying beneath her mother's floorboards so she could hear her children above her. Yeah, kind of puts things in perspective.
This important aspect of our history is most authentically conveyed by these first-person accounts - please read! -
What i learned in this novel was about the life of Frederick DOuglass, how he was a runaway slave and became a successful writer. I realized how Douglass was very influential for slavery because he was a very intelligent man who wanted freedom. He was a very influential individual who inspired many people since his writings meant a lot for the African Americans that were slaves.Themes in the book are hope and hatred, since many believed blacks did not deserve to be free and have rights. I would recommend this book to people who really don't know what Douglass was about and how he help start the ideas of how slavery was a bad and harsh.
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I had to read this for my university English class and at first was not sure if I would enjoy this type of book. I'm not to keen on reading history type books like this but it did not dissappoint me at all. In fact, if just made me want to read more.
For my class I had to read the last story, The life as a slave girl told by Linda Brent, and I could really feel for Linda and the things that she went through. She starts off by having a generous master that taught her to read and write which is seldom heard of for those days and had a descent life. Linda really did not know the meaning of slave until she lost her master and was sent to the Flints. This is where Linds learned the meaning of slave.
Reading this story you will really get a since of Lindas love and anguish through out the trials of her life. I know I did.
More stories like these should be made part of the education curriculum (in Canada any way. I know they were not when I was in school) because it makes it more real. Because of this book I am now trying to learn more about this era and it totally fascinates and disgusts me at the same time.
Please give it some thought on adding it to your to-read shelfs and I'm sure you will not be disappointed.
Looking forward to reading the rest of the book this summer, (due to other class readings that will be when I get a chance to do it...lol). -
This was an excellent book about slavery. Very horrible in parts because of the truth of the evilness of slavery.
No group of slaves anywhere, in any era, has left such prolific testimony to the horror of bondage as African-American slaves. Here are four of the most notable narratives: The Life of Olaudah Equiano; The History of Mary Prince; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; and Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl. -
EVERYONE should read this
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I set out to read the whole book but just read Incidents in the Live of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. I will go back and read the others but not right away.
For fucks sake, people, what is wrong with this country? Incidents lays it all out for you - the cruelty and perversion of slavery, the separating of families, the church's support of slavery, the sexual enslavement of women and the sexualizing of African-American girls, the immorality of profiting from enslaved labor - And this has been common knowledge one way or another since 1861 and probably before. At some point, you can't pretend not to know.
Necessary reading. -
While the narrative of Olaudah Equiano is historically significant, its inclusion of a considerable amount of autobiographical material unrelated to his experiences of slavery makes for a somewhat unfocused beginning to this anthology, but the three succeeding narratives make for absolutely compelling reading.
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Written by Himself - 11/24/2020
In contrast to the American slave narratives, whose writers were born into slavery, Vassa was born in Africa and kidnapped into bondage at age 11. His opening chapters describe the kingdom of Benin in Guinea as he remembers it, with a good deal of detail about its customs and material culture. It was interesting to me that the society had institutionalized slavery, criminals and prisoners of war being its chief victims. However, what the author describes as wars and battles seem like they might often have been little more than raids in search of plunder, a category which would include captives to be used as slaves.
At any rate, the Guinean network of domestic slavers had connection to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and, after a series of sales, Vassa went from African slavery to the hands of British masters, the two primary ones being first, a British naval officer , and later a colonial Philadelphia merchant who resided and did business mainly in the West Indies. Altogether, Gustavus Vassa (the name by which Equiano was baptized and which he seems to have gone by) was a slave for about 10 years, at which point he was able to purchase his own freedom. Though he protests against his condition and lack of agency, he seems to have been comparatively well treated, especially in contrast to some of the abuses and punishments he notes being meted out by other slave owners; with his naval master's consent he learns to read and write and gains enough skill to serve the West Indian merchant as a valuable clerk.
This is a rather rambling narrative, much of it consists of nautical adventures, first in service against the French in the Seven Years' War and then, both as a slave and freeman, on various trading missions, including the portage of slaves to America, on which he encountered various dangers associated with seafaring. Almost half the book takes place after Vassa has become free, during which time he travels as far as the Arctic and Turkey, as well as regular trans-Atlantic crossings; at one point he assists an English doctor in setting up a Jamaican plantation run by slave labor. These various adventures are rattled off in a rather cursory fashion - we get more detail about the many repetitive instances in which white employers or customers cheat the author than we do of local color - though the few instances of the latter, such as the conditions imposed by the Inquisition on ships docking in Portugal, are often interesting. I found the author's lengthy disquisition on how he came to accept the doctrines of a Calvinist strain of Christianity pretty tedious, lacking both persuasiveness and drama.
The History of Mary Prince - 11/25/2020
Another West Indian slave narrative, but this from a woman born into slavery and subject to a series of cruel masters, victim of a series of degrading and crippling punishments and occupations.
Prince's own story is "as told to" Thomas Pringle, Secretary of Britain's Anti-Slavery Society, who takes responsibility for shaping her narrative and its language, though he is careful in footnotes to note when certain terms of extreme vehemence are in Prince's own words. The story is one of harrowing and inescapable cruelty. When Prince travels with her last master, John Wood, and his wife to England, she eventually takes advantage of her nominal freedom on that ground to contact a Moravian religious group and establish herself as a freewoman. Prince was, in fact, taunted by Wood into taking this step: unable to punish her physically to the extent possible in the colonies, Wood thought the prospect of abandonment on the streets of London a substitute threat of sufficient potency.
Prince's narrative is followed by a "Supplement" in which Pringle tells the story of the efforts of his Society on Prince's behalf to gain universal recognition her freedom. (As her situation stood, she was free on British soil, but if she ventured to return to the West Indies, where she had left behind a husband, she would revert to being the property of Wood.) Several documents are included, including a letter from Wood in which he endeavors to refute Prince's story. Wood emerges from this tale as a villain of Dickensian proportions: ingenious in his cruelty and unashamed in his hypocrisy.
A short, unrelated section closes the book, the story of Louis Asa-Asa. Captured by a murderous gang of African slavers and sold to a French slave trader, he gains his freedom when the French ship runs aground on British land.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave - 7/26/2015
My review here.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - 3/12/2016 -
This book contains 4 slave narratives which are great pieces to learn about the history of that time. Reading the testimonies of the ones who were actually involved in it and were the victims of slavery gives one a great perspective and more understanding of the details. This is also a great collection because all four while they were slaves were in different situations so it gives one a wide variety and they were also written for different purposes which is reflected in the tone of the writings and what details were emphasized.
My thoughts on each narrative in itself will contain spoilers of what happened to narrators. So if you don't want to know it before you read, don't continue.
The Life Olaudah Equiano was pretty difficult to read, the language used was sometimes hard for me to understand. His situation was different from that of the most slaves. For once, he wasn't born a slave. In this book we get to learn about the kidnappings of free people from Africa who were after treated like a property. He mainly talks about his life and we don't get to know about many details of the slavery. Unlike the following characters he didn't stay a slave until the very end of it. He was "lucky"(sorry to use this word, nothing better comes to mind) that he got to learn some sailing skills on the boat and also unlike the ones at the plantations he didn't face resistance from his owners to be able to make some money on the side and be able to buy his freedom. This doesn't mean that he didn't encounter any injustice after. Working as a free black sailor still involved danger of being kidnapped again. This is a great narrative to learn about this kind of slavery situation because I didn't know much about it.
The History of Mary Prince was written as an attempt to get the woman her freedom from her owners who were refusing to do so out of spite considering that she was physically unable to work anymore. For that reason this narrative emphasizes a lot of cruelty slaves faced at that time.Some passages are very hard to read due to that. And it is hard to understand why there was such hatred towards her that they even refused the money, since she could not be exploited anymore due to her health. I would love to read some psychology based books on this kind of attitude these people had. It is unfortunate that we don't know how it ended. It seems that she never got to return back to her husband as a free woman.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas is written by a slave who escaped to the north in order to make people in the north more aware of what is going on in the south. He goes into details about mistreatment of slaves and I also loved this narrative for it included a lot of his thoughts on details like how he saw religion among the plantation owners, how the singing of the slaves while doing their work was often presented as a sign of their happiness while it was them letting out their pain and many similar things. This book is one that I would recommend the most. Frederick Douglas was an especially intelligent man who presented a lot of deep thoughts in his narrative.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is also written to make the northern states more aware of the situation and get more actions from them to fight against slavery. Only it's target audience were women. This can be seen in the tone of the book. It uses a very romantic/poetic language similar to what one would read in the novels of that time. It does not concentrate as much on the physical abuse (although it is not left out, just involves less details) as it does on the emotional pain of a woman who is abused by her master as well as a mother worrying about her children and their future.
Like I said, it is a great collection and should be read by anyone to understand more about past and people. -
The History of Mary Prince...A West Indian Slave
This story by Mary Prince herself was very moving. With tremendously great imagery and details I was able to see all of the inhumane treatment that all the black people or slaves went through. In some parts of the story I almost felt like I was actually watching a slave get whipped and mistreated by their slave masters. As I read I noticed the lack of equality that was being shown. The white people thought that they were superior to the slaves and abused their power over them. This abuse of power allowed many slaves including Mary to know the difference between “the smart of the rope, the cart whip, and the cow skin”, pg261. One important lesson I learned from reading Mary’s story, was to be thankful for everything that I have today. Today I do not have to go through all of the hardships, inequality that I would have had growing up in those times.
finished: November 16th 2010
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave
This story, like Mary Prince’s, showed all of the degrading things that slaves had to go through. They were beaten and often times even killed. There were also many paradoxes that I came across as I read. In Douglass’s story there were many white men that were extremely religious. However, they were the same one’s degrading slaves, whipping them, and treating them in ways that were unethical and inhumane. He also states a paradox himself, in his writing, “We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunders for church members”, pg430. This narrative caught my attention from start to finish and I would recommend it to everyone.
finished: December 1st 2010 -
I am currently reading The Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Linda Brent, and it is really interesting. I am surprised as to how her first mistress taught her how to read and spell when on the contrary most mistresses and masters will not supplement their slaves' education. Linda Brent obviously lived a life different most slaves by being literate and also by having both parents being mulattos, thus decreasing her negro blood. Linda Brent eloquently writes her story in such a formal way that her professionalism and writing style are truly great. I really like Linda Brent's tale so far and can't wait to finish it!
Many ex-slaves who write their memoirs have all gone through trials of suffering of different degrees and experiences. However, most ex-slaves found their freedom through literacy just like Frederick Douglass, a ex-slave who learned to read and write by manipulating others to help him. His thirst for learning also increased his thirst for freedom. Frederick Douglass' use of imagery illustrates the cruelty of slavery and how slaves lived their lives under their masters' whip. Douglass' narrative is indeed an interesting story.
Mary Prince's narrative reveals the perspective of a West Indies slave but was written down by a separate person. Prince describes her daily life and duties as a slave and how hard each task was. The hardest obstacle she had to face was her attempt to become a free woman. Her master does everything in his control to keep Prince as his slave, demonstrating how power can corrupt man. Her narrative is very unique because it is about a West Indies slave, and I felt that this was a fresh story with a fresh perspective that is different since we focused on African slavery in my history class. -
The History of Mary Prince
This was a great narrative. Through Mary's story you almost felt like you were there like you felt her pains and sufferings. The cruelty and selfishness of being a slaveholder is portrayed within the lines of this story. It is shown how slaves would create communities within themselves to substitute their families. The themes of torture, cruelty, loneliness, suffering, knowledge, and freedom. Mary Price is taken to England where she know she is free, but yet cannot leave her masters. She wishes to return to the West Indies to be with her husband, but although freed in England returning would cause her re-enslavement. I would recommend this narrative to just about anybody because it is such a powerful story.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass' narrative was powerful, but a little bit boring. Through the story he tells it is seen how there can be self determination to reach ones goals. He was separated from his mother at such a young age that her death was as if it was of a stranger. Proving the impact slavery has on families. Douglass learns how to read and write. This encourages him to become free and become a better man than slavery. His goals and accomplishments were the same as many, only that he realized it. Through this narrative it is seen how the oppressed can always work to better itself. -
Fredrick Douglass * This part of the book tells the story of Frederick Douglass' life as a slave. The reader's will understand how Douglass fought through to become the successful. Douglass uses this imagery to make his points clear to the readers. One example of imagery is when Douglass loses an ox, by mistake and he is violently whipped for it. The story of Douglass gets more interesting as one keeps reading it. Mary Prince* My favorite quote from this section of the book was "To strip me naked – to hang me up by the wrists and lay my flesh open with the cow-skin, was an ordinary punishment for even a slight offense." I like this quote the most, because she is telling us about her pain and her suffering with great detail. Harriet Jacobs* Jacob's narrative i must say is the most unique and emotional one. Her narrative tells the story of a female slave from her own point of view. The true life story of this woman's fight for freedom, for herself and for her children. Reading about the lives of people in the past and reading through their voice is always amazing to me. I really feel that narratives help connect past to present. THUMBS UP !
> R E C O M M E N D E D T O E V E R Y O N E -
These 4 narratives will have me thinking in early 19th century english for a while. All 4 memoirs are riveting stories that had me on the edge of my seat. I also appreciated these memoirs for their historical and anthropological details of the slave societies of the Americas. When Linda Brent wrote "[My] bill of sale is on record, and future generations will learn from it that women were articles of traffic in New York, late in the 19th century of the Christian religion", I felt like she was looking right at me! All 4 memoirs illustrate that much slave labor in the slave economies was paid, but just not to the enslaved people actually doing the work. Douglass, Equiano, & Prince all worked alongside freemen and whites doing the same work while enslaved, and were paid like them, but the difference was that they were required to turn over their earnings to their "owners". Equiano's travels as a sailor offers a great look at the Caribbean-Atlantic economy of the late 18th century, and of the shipping industry of the time. I also especially liked his ironic use of the word "Christian". Linda Brent's reluctance to confide her status as runaway slave even to those she trusted after she escaped to the north reminded me of similar stories I've heard from undocumented immigrants.
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Mary Prince's trials and tribulations were something I'd only briefly read not too many years ago. However, as the first African American female to have HERSTORY recorded it is almost as monumental as Phillis Wheatley's books pf poetry surviving the flames of dissent and disloyalties. Still, the last five pages of similar accounts of Asa-Asa and another were extremely chilling in depicting how slavery truly warped those who perpetrated these acts of bestiality through daily cruelities which defy Christianity, humanity and common logic. Fredrick Douglass' accounts, also were slightly lacking; I wish, in retrospect, his escape through what I assume was the Underground Railroad, would have been an great addendum. Aside from that, his accounts seem particularly poignant, at times.
11-11-10
Starting Harriet Jacobs's autobio, which already promises to be a bitter pill to swallow as it's everything the others were but I'm told she reveals the real dark side of sexual abuse which none of the others mentioned in the least. -
I learned more of how much resistance humanity is capable of in times of hopelessness; how much wealth was generated for those whose owned labor by those they owned (put simply, a whole lot)... how of course, had people who worked hardest been fairly compensated at the time, what a different looking class society America would be now. I learned that the experience of the Negro Slave was as varied and diverse as it as for whites; that in some circumstances a slave might use the fear of public amalgamation as a form of protection - though not without danger, of course, and only in very rare cases... I learned even more and greater appreciation for how far we have come. These narratives are essential.
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I had to read two books for my summer reading assignment and unfortunately The Classic Slave Narratives were my top two choices. I believed that this book wont disappoint me and I was right. In fact, The Classic Slave Narratives edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr attracted me with all my focused and allows me to think in a different points of view.
I suspect this is one of best slavey story among the majority of books. Truths has been spoken about the evilness of slavery happened back in the past.
If your interested in slavery back in the history, this book will happens to be one of the best resources that's been written by people whom walked the road by it's self and I highly recommend people to read this book.
