Reviews for Slave Narratives: James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Olaudah Equiano, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Henry Bibb, Sojourner Truth, William and Ellen Craft, Harri

The average rating for Slave Narratives: James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Olaudah Equiano, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Henry Bibb, Sojourner Truth, William and Ellen Craft, Harri based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-07-09 00:00:00 Bernice Aldrich This book affected me profoundly. While I was reading it, two black men were killed by police and there were protests nationally and friends' commentary all over my Facebook feed. I wish this book was required reading for everyone in the country. It's our history, and it's shameful, and the book provides eloquent witness from the other side of what was in our history books. It's not a thick book, but it's over 1000 pages (very thin paper), and it contains ten mostly full-book-length narratives from the 18th and 19th centuries. Nine of them were written by individuals who were enslaved and made their escapes to freedom. The depictions of the Southern culture are horrendous. The enslaved people were treated horribly, with less consideration than animals. Even the "good" masters (a small minority) would sell children from parents and spouses from each other. There was big industry involved in chains, whips, and other implements of torture'thumbscrews were mentioned in most of the narratives. And they were all used liberally. There was rarely any consequence to killing slaves; it was common. Breeding was also a big business; once the slave trade from Africa stopped, it was how the plantations got more slaves (the life expectancy of enslaved people was not long). All of this was mainstream and was not regarded as bad. In fact, abolitionists were few and far between (and not living in the South at all, that I could tell), and were considered ... well, in today's terms, anti-American. The tenth narrative, The Confessions of Nat Turner, is shorter, and is the chilling account of Turner's "rebellion," which involved killing as many white people as possible. He was a fanatic, but in the context of the other narratives, I was almost cheering him on. Religion permeates the book. Several of the narrators (especially the first two, who were 18th century and more in England than the US), were religious to the point where it was hard for me to read. But that was the culture of the time. (And Sojourner Truth was extremely religious, in a very eccentric way.) But the worst of religion was how the white people (Southerners and others) used it to justify not only slavery but extremely harsh treatment of the slaves. I repeat, the Southern culture was horrible. Mean, brutal, rapist slaveholders were not an anomaly but the norm. Black people were considered less than human and were treated horribly. The current situation in our country, with a significant percentage of black people in our foster care system, juvenile halls, and prisons (many of which are now run as private businesses!), is a direct result of slavery and in some ways a continuation of it. More public attention is now on police shootings of black men and women, but these have been going on all along, direct continuation. There is still plenty of racism. So many Americans think that affirmative action is uncalled for, and say "all lives matter." They lack perspective, without which the picture is incomplete. Again, this book should be required reading for everyone.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-09-05 00:00:00 James Rizza The Voices Of American Slaves In The Library Of America This book in the Library of America series is a collection of ten narratives that document the nature of American slavery from colonial times to the eve of the Civil War. The volume includes some familiar narratives, particularly the first and best-known of Frederick Douglass' autobiographies written in 1843, the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave". Douglass has a volume of his own in the Library of America. Many of the other narratives in this volume were new to me. The book includes two writers from the colonial period, a short account by James Gronniosaw and a longer narrative by Olaudiah Equiano. The latter book has a first-hand description of the notorious "middle passage" -- the transatlantic journey by which Africans were transported to a life of bondage in the New World. This book also features accounts of life at sea during the mid-18th century that reminded me of Patrick O'Brian's novels of sea life during the Napoleonic era. The collection includes two narratives by women. Sojourner Truth's "Narrative of Sojourner Truth", as told to a woman named Olive Gilbert, appeared in 1850. It tells the story of slavery in New York State (where it was not abolished until 1827) and introduces a strong-willed woman who combined abolitionism with strong religious passion and a commitment to woman's rights. Harriet Jacobs's account, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" was published in 1861. Written in a Victorian style, it still tells the story of the trials of a young woman who resisted her master's advances and hid for seven years in a narrow attic before escaping to freedom. "The Confessions of Nat Turner" became the basis of a controversial novel by William Styron. It is an account recorded by a local attorney, Thomas Gray, of Turner's description, while in jail waiting execution, of the slave rebellion he led in Virginia in 1831. This is a spare account but to me much more impressive than what I remember of Styron's novel. Henry Bibb's 1849 "Narrative of the Live and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave" describes several escapes, and a slave prison of almost unbelievable cruelty in Louisville, Kentucky. I found Bibb's extended narrative perhaps the most riveting work in this collection. Jacob Green's 1864 "Narrative of the Life of J.D. Green: A Runaway Slave from Kentucky" is short and tough-minded book. It shows a person who was not afraid to fight back. The narrative by William and Ellen Craft "Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom" (1860) describes how a husband and wife disguised themselves to make a 1000 mile journey from Georgia to freedom. Most escapes occurred from the border states. Although easier than an escape from the deep South, escapes from even the border states were extraordinarily difficult. William Wells Brown, like Douglass, went on to a literary career after his escape from slavery. He was the author of the first published African American novel, "Clotel". Brown also has a LOA volume devoted to has writings. His narrative, "A Fugitive Slave: Written by Himself" (1847) is short but documents convincingly his escape from slavery in Missouri. This collection will help the reader understand the nature of slavery in the United States from its beginning to its end. The volume is part of the Library of America's admirable attempt to produce uniform series of the best in American literature, thought and history. The narratives of American slaves included in this book amply deserve their place in a series that documents the American experience. Robin Friedman