Table of contents What Is a Slave Narrative Who Wrote Early Slave Narratives Who Was the Audience for Slave Narratives 8 Why Was Frederick Douglass's Work Important 10 Why Were Stories about Slave Auctions Important 12 How Did Slavery Affect Families 14 How Was Labor Described in Slave Narratives 16 Why Were Stories of Escape Told 18 How Did Emancipation Affect Slave Narratives 20 Why Were Slave Narratives Collected in the 1930s 22 What can we learn from Slave Narrative viewpoints 24 What is the impact of Slave Narratives Today 26 Fact Sheet 28 Glossary 30 For More Information 31 Index 32 About the
What Is a Slave Narrative The slave narrative is an GO TO THE SOURCE autobiographical story of a person's time in captivity The earliest slave narratives are also called captive narratives They were written in the 1500s and 1600s by European travelers who were captured by To read examples of slave narratives go to www 12StoryLibrary com primary into slavery in North America Some pirates were written by people who were born into slavery The first North American slave narratives were written before the In North America slavery was a system that allowed people to buy US Civil War 1861 1865 Some were written by people who were captured in Africa They were forced and sell others and force them Africans were captured and brought to North America against their will
iTTE to work The enslaved Conditions on slave ships were often brutal people came from Africa or the West Indies Or they were the descendants of people who came from those places They typically had dark skin So the institution of slavery in North America was based on a person's skin color and race The purpose of the North American slave narratives was to give a firsthand account of the life of an enslaved person That makes slave narratives primary sources These slave narratives are important for two reasons They document that era of US history from the point of view of enslaved people And they are the beginnings of African American literature 2 million Approximate number of people captured in Africa and the West Indies and forced into slavery in North America WORDS MATTER Slave narratives are autobiographical North American slave narratives were written by people captured in Africa and the West Indies and forced into slavery Slave narratives let people today better understand the lives of enslaved people The words people choose are important Using the term enslaved person instead of slave is a reminder that those forced into slavery were human beings Using the term enslaver instead of master does the same Using the term slave labor camp instead of plantation is a reminder that enslaved people were forced to work 5 against their
