Excerpts from Slave Narratives
Edited by Steven Mintz
University of Houston
"Death's Gwineter Lay His Cold Icy Hands on Me":Enslavement
- 1. A European slave trader,
John Barbot, describes the African slave trade (1682)
- 2. A Muslim merchant, Ayubah
Suleiman Diallo, recalls his capture and enslavement (1733)
- 3. Olaudah Equiano, an
11-year old Ibo from Nigeria remembers his kidnapping into slavery (1789)
- 4. Venture Smith relates the
story of his kidnapping at the age of six (1798)
"God's A-Gwineter Trouble de Water": The Middle
Passage
- 5. A European slave trader,
James Bardot, Jr., describes a shipboard revolt by enslaved Africans
(1700)
- 6. Olaudah Equiano describes
the horrors of the Middle Passage (1789)
- 7. A doctor, Alexander
Falconbridge, describes conditions on an English slaver
(1788)
"Dere's No Hidin' Place Down Here": Arrival
- 8. Olaudah Equiano describes
his arrival in the New World (1789)
- 9. An English physician,
Alexander Falconbridge, describes the treatment of newly arrived slaves in the
West Indies (1788)
"We Raise de Wheat, Dey Gib Us de Corn": Conditions of
Life
- 10. Solomon Northrup
describes the working conditions of slaves on a Louisiana cotton plantation
(1853)
- 11. Charles Ball compares
working conditions on tobacco and cotton plantations (1858)
- 12. Josiah Henson describes
slave housing, diet, and clothing (1877)
- 13. Francis Henderson
describes living conditions under slavery (1856)
- 14. Jacob Stroyer recalls
the material conditions of slave life (1898)
- 15. James Martin remembers a
slave auction (1937)
"Like a Motherless Child": Childhood
- 16. Jacob Stroyer recalls
the formative experiences of his childhood (1898)
- 17. James W.C. Pennington
analyzes the impact of slavery upon childhood (1849)
- 18. Lunsford Lane describes
the moment when he first recognized the meaning of slavery
(1842)
"Nobody Knows de Trouble I See": Family
- 19. Laura Spicer learns that
her husband, who had been sold away, has taken another wife (1869)
- 20. An overseer attempts to
rape Josiah Henson's mother (1877)
- 21. Lewis Clarke discusses
the impact of slavery on family life (1846)
"Go Home to My Lord and Be Free": Religion
- 22. Olaudah Equiano
describes West African religious beliefs and practices (1789)
- 23. Charles Ball remembers a
slave funeral, which incorporated traditional African customs (1837)
- 24. Peter Randolph describes
the religious gathers slaves held outside of their master's supervision
(1893)
- 25. Henry Bibb discusses
"conjuration" (1849)
"Oppressed So Hard They Could Not Stand":
Punishment
- 26. Frederick Douglass
describes the circumstances that prompted masters to whip slaves (1845)
- 27. John Brown has bells and
horns fastened on his head (1855)
- 28. William Wells Brown is
tied up in a smokehouse (1847)
- 29. Moses Roper is punished
for attempting to run away (1837)
- 30. Lewis Clarke describes
the implements his mistress used to beat him (1846)
"My Lord Says He's Gwineter Rain Down Fire":
Resistance
- 31. Frederick Douglass
resists a slave breaker (1845)
- 32. Nat Turner describes his
revolt against slavery (1831)
"Follow the Drinkin' Gourd": Flight
- 33. Margaret Ward follows
the North Star to freedom (1879)
- 34. Frederick Douglass
borrows a sailor's papers to escape slavery (1855, 1895)
- 35. Harriet Tubman sneaks
into the South to free slaves (1863, 1865)
- 36. Henry "Box" Brown
escapes slavery in a sealed box (1872)
- 37. Margaret Garner kills
her daughter rather than see her returned to slavery (1876)
"The Walls Came Tumblin' Down": Emancipation
- 38. Private Thomas Long
assesses the meaning of black military service during the Civil War (1870)
- 39. Corporal Jackson Cherry
appeals for equal opportunity for former slaves (1865)
- 40. Jourdan Anderson
declines his former master's invitation to return to his plantation (1865)
- 41. Major General Rufus
Saxon assesses the freedmen's aspirations (1866)
- 42. Colonel Samuel Thomas
describes the attitudes of ex-Confederates toward the freedmen (1865)
- 43. Francis L. Cardozo asks
for land for the freedmen (1868)
- 44. The Rev. Elias Hill is
attacked by the Ku Klux Klan (1872)
- 45. Henry Blake describes
sharecropping (1937)
- 46. Frederick Douglass
assesses the condition of the freedmen in 1880