Slaves and Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the slave narrative maintains a unique station in modern literature and how unlike any other body of literature, it provides us with a first-hand account of institutional racially-motivated human bondage in an ostensibly democratic society. It shows how taken together, the narratives of former black slaves in the Antebellum South provide us with one of the largest bodies of literature written by former slaves in history. It looks at how these works, although they provide us a keen insight into the nature of the period, all but disappeared following emancipation and the end of the Civil War.

Outline
Introduction
African Culture and its Influence on the Mind of the American Slave
Early Literature of the Former Slaves
19th Century American Slave Narratives before 1865
Richard Wright's "Black Boy"
James Weldon Johnson's "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man"

From the Paper:

"William Wells Brown became the first African American to write a novel in 1853. Clotel is a work of fiction whose heroine is the illegitimate black daughter of President Thomas Jefferson. It shares the distinction of being about one who could be considered a fallen person of nobility. The novel is a tragedy, where the heroine has a white lover which later abandons her, is sold into slavery, escapes, and kills herself as the slave-hunters are closing in on her. Although the novel was never as popular as Uncle Tom's Cabin (which at the time was the only book in print out-selling the Bible) it was still immensely popular and went through four editions over the course of ten years. Although in some ways Clotel resembles Uncle Tom's Cabin, it is differentiated in several key ways."

More papers on Slaves and Literature:

• Term Paper # 75189 : "American Civil Rights and Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 42860 : "Slavery and Literature"
• Book Review # 109187 : "Slavery and Literature"

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