Slave Narrative

“The slaves we saw on board the ship were chained together by the legs below deck, so close they could not move. They were flogged very cruelly. I saw one of them flogged till he died; we could not tell what for.”¹ The account of Asa-Asa, an enslaved African taken to the West Indies, paints a grim picture of what it was like to travel the Middle Passage while held captive on a slave ship. Many slave narratives share similar characteristics, proving their importance as autobiographical accounts of a dark period of history.

Slave Narrative: A Definition

Slave narratives are a literary genre that records the experience of slavery from the perspective of a person who survived slavery. As the abolitionist movement began to gain popularity in eighteenth-century England, supporters began to encourage enslaved people to share their experiences.

In 1773, enslaved Boston resident Phillis Wheatley published her poems in London. It was followed by The Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African in 1782, which recorded the insightful correspondence of a formerly enslaved shopkeeper whose intelligence made him many friends within London’s cultural upper class. Though not technically slave narratives, these publications’ eloquence helped convince people that Africans had the same moral and intellectual abilities as Europeans–a strong argument against slavery.

Parallel to the European abolitionists, anti-slavery groups in the United States began to publish similar narratives to contradict pro-slavery voices that claimed enslaved people were satisfied with their lives. For example, in 1760, a pamphlet, “A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprizing Deliverance of Briton Hammon, A Negro Man,” was published in Boston.

The action and spirituality of the tales quickly became popular, and the format evolved into what is recognized as a slave narrative today. The first African American slave narrative is credited as being “A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa: But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America” (1798), a pamphlet about a formally enslaved man named Venture Smith.

Most historical slave narratives were written between the mid-1700s and the late 1800s. Their timeline coincided with when the abolitionist movement gained a foothold in society, and then they lost popularity after the end of the United States Civil War. Later, a government program in the 1920s and 1930s created a program that employed people to collect slave narratives from a sociological perspective. As a result of modern-day forms of slavery worldwide, slave narratives are helping enslaved people find their voice yet again in the twenty-first century.

Abolitionist groups used sympathetic images to sway their audience, Wikimedia

Slave Narrative: Characteristics

The purpose of slave narratives was to paint a picture of the brutality and degradation of slavery for white readers and to show them that enslaved people deserve human rights. Experts who study historical slave narratives found as they developed, they began to follow a specific format. Professor and author James Olney has broken the structure down into outline form:

• An engraved portrait
• A title page declares it as having been written by the enslaved person or a recording of the testimony of the enslaved person
• Testimonials or an introduction written by white abolitionists
• A short poem that illustrates its theme
• The narrative
  • 1. Begins with “I was born,” naming a place but no date
  • 2. Vague details about the enslaved person’s parents
  • 3. Stories about a sadistic master and details of multiple instances of abuse, especially against women
  • 4. A story about a strong and rebellious enslaved person who refuses to be beaten for no reason
  • 5. Testimony about barriers to learning to read and write
  • 6. A Christian slaveholder is described as being more inhumane than slaveholders who are not religious
  • 7. Details about their daily routine, the amount of work they did, types of food and clothing they were given
  • 8. The distressing details of a slave auction
  • 9. Details about failed escape attempts
  • 10. Details about their successful escape
  • 11. The story of how they changed their last name as a symbol of their freedom
  • 12. Their observations about slavery
• An appendix that includes slavery documents and requests for financial donations and moral support for the fight against slavery²

Types of Slave Narratives

Two important types of slave narratives are autobiographical slave narratives and slave narratives about the Middle Passage.

Autobiographical Slave Narratives

Whether the enslaved person physically wrote the account depended on if they could read and write, but slave narratives are autobiographical. However, as noted in the outline, before the record began, a white authority needed to assert that what the audience would read was factual and the thoughts of the enslaved person. Part of the justification for slavery hinged on the belief that enslaved societies were not civilized and didn’t have the capabilities to think or feel. Therefore, the abolitionist’s assertion lent the account credibility it would not have otherwise.

Pro-slavery groups questioned whether the people who helped formerly enslaved people tell their stories influenced or exaggerated details to strengthen anti-slavery arguments. As a result, many people dismissed early slave narratives as propaganda. Later slave narratives that fondly reminisce about slavery could have resulted from interviewers, who were overwhelmingly white, not providing an accurate recording of answers, or interviewees not feeling comfortable answering truthfully.

As African American scholars entered the discussion, historians began to recognize slave narratives as primary sources on the history of slavery. In addition, they acknowledged formerly enslaved people’s knowledge about how they experienced their reality.

Slave Narratives About the Middle Passage

The routes of the transatlantic slave trade are known as the “triangle trade,” with Africa, Europe, and the Americas as the geographical points. The Middle Passage refers to the second segment of the triangle when those sold or captured into slavery journeyed to slaveholders’ destinations. Historians figure around twelve million Africans were transported across the Atlantic, but due to the horrific conditions onboard slave ships, it’s estimated that fifteen percent of the captives did not live through the approximately eighty-day trip.³

The Middle Passage was a defining moment for the captive people. Along with trying to physically survive malnutrition and illness due to poor ventilation and lack of personal space, the newly enslaved people had to wrap their minds around their traumatic experiences.

Some slave narratives included passages about the harrowing ordeals they endured while traveling from their homelands to slaveholders' lands. One of the most well-known accounts of the Middle Passage is included in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789).

Glimpse into the overcrowded living space of a Transatlantic slave ship, as painted by an anti-slavery patrol agent, Wikimedia.

The Importance of Slave Narratives

Slave narratives are important because they offer a glimpse into African American history and the foundation of African American literature. In addition, as mentioned above, one of the functions of slave narratives was to create a dialogue between African Americans and white Americans around the institution of slavery.

By studying slave narratives, a clear record of the problematic requirements African Americans have tolerated on the road to becoming human in the eyes of white America emerges from between the lines. For example, although slave narratives are centered on the voice of the enslaved person who suffered the ordeal, they are neatly confined between the opening and closing authority of white representatives who have decided they are reliable.