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Digital Bookshelf: Digital Texts: Slave Narratives


Adams, John Quincy. Narrative of the Life of John Quincy Adams, When in Slavery, and Now as a Freeman.  Harrisburg, PA: Sieg, 1872. Click Here

Source Type: Slave Narrative


Bibb, Henry. Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself. New York: The Author, 1849. Click Here

Source Type: Slave Narrative

Editor's Rating: Essential

Born in Kentucky, Henry Bibb became one of the antebellum era's best known fugitive slaves.  He lectured across the North and helped settle ex-slave communities in Canada.  Bibb was editor of Canada's first black newspaper, The Voice of the Fugitive.


Brown, Henry Box. Narrative of Henry Box Brown, Who escaped from Slavery Enclosed in a Box 3 Feet Long and 2 Wide. Written from a Statement of Facts Made by Himself. With, Remarks Upon the Remedy for Slavery. Ed. Charles Stearns. Boston: Brown and Stearns. 1849. Click Here

Source Type: Slave Narrative

Editor's Rating: Essential

Henry "Box" Brown made perhaps the most famous escape from slavery in his era when he arranged for Samuel A. Smith, a white Underground Railroad agent, to ship him from Richmond to Philadelphia on March 23, 1849.  He survived the 24-hour journey, greeted in Philadelphia by William Still, J. Miller McKim and other representatives from the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee.  The scene of his unpacking, or "resurrection" became an iconic image.  Brown relocated to England for more than two decades before returning to the US as a performer in the 1870s.  Samuel Smith spent several years in a Virginia jail for his role in the escape.


Brown, William Wells. Narrative of William W. Brown, An American Slave. Written by Himself. London: C. Gilpin, 1849.

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Source Type:  Slave Narrative


Craft, William.  Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; or, the Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery.  London:  William Tweedie, 1860.

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Source Type: Slave Narrative


Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Written by Himself. Boston: American Anti-slavery Society, 1845. Click Here

Source Type: Slave Narrative

Editor's Rating: Essential

In each successive autobiography (he wrote three altogether), Frederick Douglass offered new details about his origins, experiences and escape from slavery.  In 1838, Douglass fled from Baltimore through Philadelphia before arriving safely in New Bedford, Massachusetts.  He was careful to leave out operational details from his pre-war narratives (published in 1845 and 1855) because, as he warned in his first Narrative, too much talk about  methods of escape might have turned the Underground Railroad "most emphatically into "the upperground railroad."


Douglass, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. New York: Miller, Orton and Mulligan, 1855.

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Source Type:  Slave Narrative


Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass Written by Himself. His Early Life as a Slave, His Escape from Bondage, and His Complete History to the Present Time. Hartford, CT: Park, 1881.

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Source Type:  Slave Narrative


Drew, Benjamin. A North-Side View of Slavery. The Refugee: or, The Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. Related by Themselves. With an Account of the History and Condition of the Colored Population of Upper Canada. Boston: J. P. Jewett, 1856.

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Source Type:  Slave Narrative

Editor's Rating: Essential

Benjamin Drew was a Boston abolitionist who interviewed ex-slaves in Canada for John P. Jewett (the publisher of Uncle Tom's Cabin) and provided a rare compilation of contemporary ex-slave interviews.  Harriet Tubman was one of his subjects.  Drew changed some names and fictionalized some accounts to protect fugitives.


Grimes, William. Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, Brought down to the Present Time. Written by Himself. New Haven: The Author, 1855.

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Source Type: Slave Narrative


Henson, Josiah. The Life of Josiah Henderson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, As Narrated by Himself. Ed. Samuel A. Eliot. Boston: A. D. Phelps, 1849.

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Source Type: Slave Narrative


Jacobs, Harriet Ann. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself.  Ed. Lydia Maria Child. Boston: The Author, 1861.

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Source Type: Slave Narrative


Library of Congress, "Born In Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1938," American Memory Project, 2001.

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Source Type: Slave Narrative


Loguen, Jermain Wesley. The Rev. J.W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman: A Narrative of Real Life. Syracuse, NY: J.G.K Truair and Co., 1859. Click Here

Source Type:  Slave Narrative


Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave. Narrative of Solomon Northup, A Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River, in Louisiana. Ed. David Wilson. Auburn, NY: Derby and Miller, 1853.

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Source Type: Slave Narrative


Parker, William. "The Freedman's Story" In Two Parts. Atlantic Feb. 1866: 152-66; Mar. 1866: 276-95.

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Source Type:  Slave Narrative


Pennington, James W. C. The Fugitive Blacksmith; or, Events in the Life of James W.C. Pennington, Pastor of a Presbyterian Church, New York, Formerly a Slave in the State of Maryland, United States. London: Charles Gilpin, 1849.

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Source Type:  Slave Narrative


Smallwood, Thomas B.  A Narrative of Thomas Smallwood, (colored man) : giving an account of his birth--the period he was held in slavery--his release--and removal to Canada, etc. : together with an account of the underground railroad.  Toronto: James Stephens, 1851.  

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Source Type:  Slave Narrative


Ward, Samuel Ringgold. Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro: His Anti-slavery Labours in the United States, Canada and England. London: John Snow, 1855.

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Source Type:  Slave Narrative


Williams, James. Life and Adventures of James Williams, A Fugitive Slave, with a Full Description of the Underground Railroad. San Francisco: Women's Union, 1873.

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Source Type: Slave Narrative


 

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