Menu
Idea

slave narratives

70
Filter by:

Filter by published date

John Andrew Jackson riding a galloping horse and tipping his hat.
partner

How Do We Tell a Tale of People Who Sought to Disappear?

The life of John Andrew Jackson — and the vacillating richness and scarcity of the archive.
by Susanna Ashton via HNN on August 13, 2024
Portrait of a Black woman; artist unknown, American, circa 1830–1835.

In Search of the Real Hannah Crafts

"The Bondwoman’s Narrative" is the first novel by a Black woman to describe slavery from the inside. Recently, scholars have discovered her true identity.
by Brenda Wineapple via New York Review of Books on July 25, 2024
Drawing of Josiah Henson

The Man Who Became Uncle Tom

Harriet Beecher Stowe said that Josiah Henson’s life had inspired her most famous character. But Henson longed to be recognized by his own name.
by Clint Smith via The Atlantic on September 8, 2023
Illustration by Kat Brooks of Stephanie Gilbert and her great grandfather Oliver Cromwell Gilbert and his home.

She Cherished the Home Where Her Family Fled Slavery. Then a Stranger Bought It.

Would the new owner of Richland Farm let a Black woman continue to visit to pay tribute to her enslaved ancestors?
by Sydney Trent via Washington Post on August 5, 2023
The “Arrival of freedmen and their families at Baltimore, Maryland” circa 1865.

“The Times Requires This Testimony”: William Still’s 'The Underground Railroad'

Still’s detailed record of radical abolitionist action remains a model for creating freedom out of community and community out of freedom.
by Julia W. Bernier via Black Perspectives on December 5, 2022
Sculpture of Olaudah Equiano, the Queen’s House, London

Olaudah Equiano’s Transnational Insights

A brief look into Equiano's life reveals that many Black figures were considerably more transnational in their movements and critiques than commonly assumed.
by Taylor Prescott via Black Perspectives on November 10, 2022
Bernard Lynch's slave pen in St. Louis, with many potential buyers standing outside.

The Remarkable Story of Mattie J. Jackson

Her narrative documents the very real dangers enslaved runaways experienced while traveling through so-called "free states" of the North.
by Nick Sacco via Muster on March 29, 2022
Illustration of Elizabeth Keckley

Elizabeth Keckley's Memoir Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four in the White House

Keckley’s decision to write about her employers from the viewpoint of a household laborer--she was seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln--enraged audiences.
by Dorothy Berry, James Olney, Carme Manuel, Janet Neary, Carolyn Sorisio via JSTOR Daily on March 10, 2022
Portrait photograph of John B. Cade.

John B. Cade's Project to Document the Stories of the Formerly Enslaved

There are revelations in a newly digitized collection of slave narratives compiled by a professor and his students during the Great Depression.
by Susanna Ashton via JSTOR Daily on January 26, 2022
Illustrations from Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup, 1853, depicting an African American man hugging his family.

A Dark Cloud over Enjoyment

Refusing myths of joy and pain in slave narratives.
by Erin Austin Dwyer via Lapham’s Quarterly on December 7, 2021
Artist's rendition of Omar ibn Said

A Quest for the True Identity of Omar ibn Said, a Muslim Man Enslaved in the Carolinas

Omar ibn Said was captured in Senegal at 37 and enslaved in Charleston. A devout Muslim, he later converted to the Christian faith of his enslavers. Or did he?
by Jennifer Berry Hawes via Post and Courier on May 27, 2021
Tintype photograph of Omar Ibn Said.

Educated and Enslaved

The journey of Omar Ibn Said.
by Benny Seda-Galarza via Library of Congress on July 22, 2019
Portrait photograph of Harriet Jacobs as an older woman

Incidents in the Life of Harriet Jacobs

A virtual tour of "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."
by Elizabeth Della Zazzera via Lapham’s Quarterly on April 15, 2019
Lithograph of Josiah Henson in his autobiography.

The Story of Josiah Henson, the Real Inspiration for 'Uncle Tom’s Cabin'

Before Stowe's famous novel, a formerly enslaved African-American living in Canada wrote a memoir detailing his experience.
by Jared Brock via Smithsonian on May 16, 2018
Olauda Equiano.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano, native of Africa, survivor of the Middle Passage and enslavement, tells his story.
by Olaudah Equiano via The Internet Archive on March 24, 1789
Burgundy leather book cover with "Published By The Author" written in gold.

Self-Publishing and the Black American Narrative

"Published by the Author" explores the resourcefulness of Black writers of the nineteenth century.
by Tim Brinkhof, Bryan Sinche via JSTOR Daily on December 11, 2024
Title page of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Searching for the Elusive Man Who Inspired Uncle Tom’s Cabin

John Andrew Jackson spent a night at Harriet Beecher Stowe’s home as he fled north. Why do so few traces of his visit remain?
by Scott Wasserman Stern via The New Republic on October 24, 2024
Harriet Tubman.

How a Young Harriet Tubman Found Solace in Syncretic Religion

Childhood trauma led Minty Ross (Harriet Tubman) to seek divine intervention.
by Tiya Miles via Literary Hub on June 18, 2024
A Ride for Liberty – The Fugitive Slaves by Eastman Johnson.

Unapologetically Free: A Personal Declaration of Independence From the Formerly Enslaved

Abolitionist and writer John Swanson Jacobs on reclaiming liberty in a land of unfreedom.
by John Swanson Jacobs, Jonathan D. S. Schroeder via Literary Hub on May 24, 2024
Tina Turner singing on stage

America Loved Tina Turner. But It Wasn’t Good To Her.

Over the course of her 83 years, the megawatt star that was Tina Turner kept telling us who she was in the hopes that we would see her — all of her.
by Soraya Nadia McDonald via Andscape on June 6, 2023
Portrait of an elderly Harriot Jacobs.

I Was Determined to Remember: Harriet Jacobs and the Corporeality of Slavery’s Legacies

How a folklorist encourages people to experience the past and present of a place.
by Koritha Mitchell via Los Angeles Review of Books on May 30, 2023
Cast of the opera "Omar" on stage, with Arabic script on the stage backdrop.

‘Tell Your Story, Omar’

A new, Pulitzer Prize–winning opera adapts the memoir of Omar ibn Said, an African Muslim who spent much of his life enslaved in North Carolina.
by Edward Ball via New York Review of Books on May 4, 2023
Black and white photograph of William Still, sitting, pasted against a blue tinted backdrop of a U.S. state map

The Forgotten Father of the Underground Railroad

The author of a book about William Still unearths new details about the leading Black abolitionist—and reflects on his lost legacy.
by Andrew K. Diemer via Smithsonian on November 9, 2022
Illustration of a giant tree in a swamp

The Hidden and Eternal Spirit of the Great Dismal Swamp

For nearly all of its modern existence, the Great Dismal Swamp has been excluded from U.S. history. Now there’s a push to bring its significance to light.
by Lex Pryor via The Ringer on March 30, 2022
Portraits of African American men revealed under torn copy of the Dred Scott Case.

The Painful, Cutting and Brilliant Letters Black People Wrote To Their Former Enslavers

The letters show a desire for freedom and a desperate longing to be reunited with their families.
by Jourdon Anderson, Vilet Lester, Gillian Brockell, Annie Davis, Jermain Wesley Loguen, Frederick Douglass via Retropolis on March 13, 2022
African American students and teacher in a classroom, Henderson, KY, 1916.

The Origin Story of Black Education

As Frederick Douglass’s master put it, a slave who learned to read and write against the will of his master was tantamount to “running away with himself.”
by Jarvis R. Givens via Harvard University Press Blog on February 1, 2022
A former slave cabin, surrounded by tourists.

‘These Are Our Ancestors’: Descendants of Enslaved People Are Shifting Plantation Tourism

At three plantations in Charleston, S.C., Black descendants are connecting with their family’s history and helping reshape the narrative.
by Ariel Felton via Retropolis on October 1, 2021
The Legacy Museum shows visitors elements of America’s long history of racial injustice – slavery, lynching, segregation, police killings of Black teens and the societal addiction to putting Black people behind bars. Photograph: Courtesy of Equal Justice Initiative/Human Pictures

‘Truth-Telling Has to Happen’: The Museum of America’s Racist History

The Legacy Museum lands at a time when racial violence is on the rise and critical race theory is used to prevent America’s racist past being taught in schools.
by Ed Pilkington via The Guardian on September 19, 2021
Smithsonian anthropologist Kari Bruwelheide points out details in the sculptures depicting the faces of two enslaved African Americans who labored at Catoctin Furnace in the late 1700s or early 1800s

Faces of the Dead Emerge From Lost African American Graveyard

The bones of enslaved furnace workers tell the grim story of their lives.
by Michael E. Ruane via Washington Post on July 9, 2021
Wooden cross in the Eli Jackson Methodist Church cemetery in San Juan, Texas.

When Slaves Fled to Mexico

A new book tells the forgotten story of fugitive slaves who found freedom south of the border.
by David S. Reynolds via New York Review of Books on May 13, 2021
View More
30 of
70

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History