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The classic slave narratives

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Cover of The classic slave narratives
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Before the end of the civil war, over one hundred former slaves had written moving stories of their captivity and by 1944, when George Washington Carver published his autobiography, over six thousand ex-slaves had written what are called slave narratives. No group of slaves anywhere, in any other era, has left such prolific testimony to the horror of bondage and servitude.

Race relationsSlavesSocial conditionsAfrican AmericansBiographyHistoryNarration (rhetoric)Slaves' writingsSlave narrativesSlaves' writings, American