Literature as Resistance in the Anti-Slavery Movement

Mintz, Steven & Susan Kellogg, Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life, (The Free Press, 1988) Shaw, Stephanie, Motherhood in Slavery. (New York Oxford University Press, 1991) Slaughter, Richard. The Library of Congress. Born in Slavery: The Slavery Narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project, 1936-1938. Virginia Narratives.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987.

Prior to the publication of any slave narrative, African Americans had been represented by early historians’ interpretations of their race, culture, and situation along with contemporary authors’ fictionalized depictions. Their persona was often “characterized as infantile, incompetent, and...incapable of achievement” (Hunter-Willis 11) while the actions of slaveholders were justified with the arguments that slavery would maintain a cheap labor force and a guarantee that their suffering did not differ to the toils of the rest of the “struggling world” (Hunter-Willis 12). The emergence of the slave narratives created a new voice that discredited all former allegations of inferiority and produced a new perception of resilience and ingenuity. Frederick Douglass’s and Harriet Jacobs’s narratives both focused on self-made individuals who experienced upward mobility through their own efforts and hard work, therefore partaking in the positive redefining of African Americans. The writing methods of each differed in the style in which they presented their narratives where Douglass took on a sermonic style and Jacobs employed the “sentimental novel” (Alonzo 119) formula.

New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2004. 385-452. Print. Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

McFreely, William S. Frederick Douglass. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991. Mercer, Trudy. Harriet Ann Jacobs Author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. "Representative Woman: Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."

Martin's, 2010. Print. Lee, Desmond. “The Study of African American Slave Narratives “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and “Narrative of Frederick Douglass”.” Studies of Early African americans. 17 (1999): 1-99.

In the same manner, Horton reveals the part of the slave agony. The black folk and the nation itself are in a determinant position. The nation has the duty to end slavery in practice and in principle and the slave has the duty of moving forward despite the injustice. Horton’s poem gives voice to the hope stilled in many new free blacks, but also denounces the effects of slavery. Both authors denote the way the slave’s character resisted bondage despite its consequences.

In this chapter we see that the slave owners possess all the qualities of racism toward the African slaves. The differences that were made toward the indentured servants versus the African slaves were at times inhumane. There punishments for the same crimes were not as harsh as the African slaves. The treatment against the African slaves was degrading to make them fill inferior. According to Zinn in 1600 the color black meant according to Oxford English Dictionary “deeply stained with dirt; soiled, dirty, foul.

An American History, stated, “Black sought to make white Americans understand slavery as a concrete reality—the denial of all the essential elements of freedom—not merely as a metaphor for the loss of political self-determination.” African American fought collectively with both men and women against oppression from Caucasians. The practice of slavery for men and women both presented equally sufferings. However, the white planation owners or overseers routinely raped women during this time. Women regularly had their children stripped away from them and sold into slavery. However, ironica... ... middle of paper ... ...families.

“Runaway Tongue: Resistant Orality in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Our Nig, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Beloved.” The Culture of Sentiment: Race, Gender, and Sentimentality in Nineteenth-Century America Ed. Shirley Samuels. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. eBook. Santamarina, Xiomara. Belabored Professions: Narratives African American Working Womanhood.