slave narrative
Captive's written testimony
A slave narrative is a first-person account of life in bondage, typically written or dictated by a formerly enslaved person.
The genre flourished in the United States before the Civil War, with works like Frederick Douglass's autobiography becoming powerful tools of the abolitionist movement.
These accounts documented the brutalities of slavery and asserted the humanity of the enslaved.
The term now extends to any memoir or testimony describing experiences of enslavement.
- autobiographySelf-penned life narrative
- first person accountNarrative told by participant
- civil rights movementOrganized effort against discrimination
- abolitionismMovement to end oppression
- antebellumBefore a war's start
Frederick Douglass · oral tradition · testimony · bearing witness · plantation economy · auction block · emancipation · moral suasion · Sojourner Truth · Booker T. Washington · African American literature · human rights advocacy · protest literature · pathos · amanuensis · Underground Railroad · escape route · freedom papers
- memoirsmemoir, memoirs, autobiography, autobiographies, life story
- personal writingdiary, journal, autobiographical essay, memoir, memoirs
- Abolitionismabolitionists, abolitionist movement, antislavery, abolitionism, Frederick Douglass
- slaverybondage, chattel, thrall, Middle Passage, slaveholders
- life writingmemoir, autobiography, biography, memoirs, memoir writing
- oral historyinterview, testimony, storytelling, memoir, firsthand account