Contains twenty critical essays in which the authors examine various aspects of the slave narrative, discussing its origins and development, form and content, and impact on American literature.
Content Note
The first slave narratives: tales of rogues and runaways / Marion Wilson Starling -- Eightenth-century narratives offer a mild critique of slavery / Frances Smith Foster -- Nineteenth-century narratives condemn a dehumanizing system / William L. Andrews -- The postbellum slave narrative: assuming the responsibilities of freedom / Frances Smith Foster -- The slave narrative and the Puritan captivity narrative / Richard Slotkin -- Frederick Douglass's use of abolitionist documents / John W. Blassingame -- Biblical allusion and imagery in Frederick Douglass's narrative / Lisa Margaret Zeitz -- The slave narrative and the picaresque tradition / Charles H. Nichols -- Literacy and freedom in the slave narrative / Janet Duitsman Cornelius -- Freedom involves a home and family / Jena Fagan Yellin -- The slave narrator as antislavery activist / Victor C.D. Mtubani -- Life after freedom: fulfilling the American dream / Sidonie Smith -- The development of women's slave narratives / Henry Louis Gates Jr. -- Defining the slave narrative in female terms / Joanne M. Braxton -- The exploitation of female slaves by their white mistresses / Minrose C. Gwin -- The portrayal of slave women in slave narratives / Hazel V. Carby -- Harriet Beecher Stowe's use of slave narratives / Robert B. Stepto -- The slave narrative and the early African American novel / Marva J. Furman -- The slave narrative and twentieth-century African American autobiography / Lucinda H. Mackethan -- Toni Morrison's use of the slave narrative in Beloved / Joycelyn K. Moody.