Slave Narrative Research Paper

Slave narrative is the life account of enslaved Africans in Great Britain and later in the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries. It recounted the personal experiences of slaves and was essential to the anti-slavery movement or the Abolitionism. Slave narrative was the main form of African-American literature in the 19th century and also the foundation of African-American literary tradition; it concentrated on oral aspects, folk tale, music, and religion, therefore reflecting their cultural values. According to William Andrews's "The Representation of Slavery and Afro-American Literary Realism": "Throughout the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, autobiographies of former slaves dominated the Afro-American narrative tradition. Approximately sixty-five American slave narratives were published in book or pamphlet form before 1865 . . . " (78). African slaves were introduced to North America from Britain during the British Colonization of the Americas. Slavery was recognized in all thirteen …show more content…
Slave narratives during the late 1700s to the early 1800s gave an account of spiritual journey that leads to redemption. Starting from the mid-1800s, more writers used the autobiographic form and they attempted to arouse sympathy to promote humanitarianism. More than 80 autobiographical narratives about the experiences of auctions and break-up of families were published between 1825 and 1865. Examples include The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly of Raleigh, N.C. Embracing an Account of His Early Life, the Redemption by Purchase of Himself and Family from Slavery, and His Banishment from the Place of His Birth for the Crime of Wearing a Colored Skin by Lunsford Lane, and Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Now in England by John