American Slave Narratives

In order to understand the stories related to slavery as an institution, the literary genre in which they belong to, and the historical context surrounding them, it is necessary to provide knowledge about the traits and history of such texts. Slave narratives are an account or portion of someone’s life. It is often related by someone else, as slaves most commonly could not read or write. Such narratives are regarded as highly influential in American literature. These narratives were crucial for slave abolitionists, and was meant to prove that a slave was indeed
“A man and a brother”, as a reference to the “Anti-Slavery Medallion”1, for the intended white audience. It was also to prove that the Black narrator was to be trusted despite