Slave Narratives - Collected Works (Illustrated)

Slave Narratives

Sep 2025 · Delphi Series Fifteen Book 21 · Delphi Classics

Ebook

1131

Pages

Eligible

Ratings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More

About this ebook

Slave narratives comprise a prominent tradition of American literature, shaping the form and themes of some of the most celebrated and controversial writing in the country’s history. The first slave narrative to become an international bestseller was the ‘Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano’, which introduced the slave ship through the innocent perspective of an African captive. With the rise of the abolition movement in the early nineteenth century, there was a demand for hard-hitting eyewitness accounts of the harsh realities of slavery. Numerous former slaves published detailed and engaging accounts of their enslavement and daring escapes to freedom. This collection provides the most notable slave narratives published on both sides of the Atlantic, spanning the mid eighteenth century to the modern era. From the innovative brilliance of Henry Brown’s escape in a box to Harriet Jacobs’ harrowing ordeal of sexual harassment; from Ellen Craft’s ingenious impersonation of a white slaver to William Still’s heroic accounts of the Underground Railroad; from Solomon Northup’s endurance through twelve years of slavery to Douglass’ seminal accounts of the slavery institution, these noble men and women have preserved their extraordinary tales of bravery, defiance and hope for countless generations. (Version 1)

* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Slave Narrative authors
* Concise introductions to all the texts
* 44 separate books, with individual contents tables
* Rare accounts appearing for the first time in digital publishing
* Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* Easily locate the stories you want to read
* Includes the complete WPA Slave Narrative Collection, completed during the Great Depression, preserving over 2,300 accounts– available in no other collection
* Ordering of texts into chronological order

CONTENTS:

The Narratives
A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (1772)
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789)
A Narrative of the Life and Adventures (1798) by Venture Smith
The Blind African Slave (1810) by Benjamin F. Prentiss
The Life, History, and Unparalleled Sufferings of John Jea, the African Preacher (1811)
Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave (1825)
A Narrative of Some Remarkable Incidents in the Life of Solomon Bayley (1825)
Slavery in the United States (1836) by Charles Ball
A Narrative of Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper from American Slavery (1837)
Recollections of Slavery by a Runaway Slave (1838) by James Matthews
The Narrative of Lunsford Lane (1842)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
Narratives of the Sufferings of Lewis and Milton Clarke (1846)
Narrative of William Wells Brown (1847)
Narrative of Henry Watson (1848)
Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown (1849)
The Life of Josiah Henson (1849)
Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb (1849)
The Fugitive Blacksmith (1849) by James W. C. Pennington
Twelve Years a Slave (1853) by Solomon Northup
Slave Life in Georgia (1855) by John Brown
The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots (1855) by John S. Jacobs
My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) by Frederick Douglass
The Life of John Thompson (1855)
The Kidnapped and the Ransomed (1856) by Kate E. R. Pickard
A Narrative of the Life and Labors of the Rev. G. W. Offley (1859)
The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman (1859)
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom (1860) by Ellen and William Craft
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) by Harriet Jacobs
The Experience of a Slave in South Carolina (1862) by John Andrew Jackson
A Typical Negro (1863)
Narrative of the Life of J. D. Green (1864)
The Life of James Mars (1864)
A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison (1865) by Paul Jennings
The Freedman’s Story (1866) by William Parker
Behind the Scenes (1868) by Elizabeth Keckley
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1869) by Sarah Hopkins Bradford
The Underground Railroad (1872) by William Still
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881)
Autobiography of James L. Smith (1881)
From the Darkness Cometh the Light (1891) by Lucy A. Delaney
Thirty Years a Slave (1897) by Louis Hughes
Up from Slavery (1900) by Booker T. Washington
Before the War and after the Union (1929) by Sam Aleckson

WPA Slave Narrative Collection (1938)
Alabama Narratives
Arkansas Narratives
Florida Narratives
Georgia Narratives
Indiana Narratives
Kansas Narratives
Kentucky Narratives
Maryland Narratives
Mississippi Narratives
Missouri Narratives
North Carolina Narratives
Ohio Narratives
Oklahoma Narratives
South Carolina Narratives
Tennessee Narratives
Texas Narratives
Virginia Narratives
Administrative Files

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets

Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.

Laptops and computers

You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.

eReaders and other devices

To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.

Report illegal content