How to Create Your Own African American Library

Slave Narratives The first writings in African American literature were narratives written by slaves and offer a firsthand look at America through the "peculiar institution" of slavery. These narratives were some of the first attacks on slavery that lead to the abolitionist movement and the emancipation of slaves. They contain graphic depictions of life in bondage, including physical and emotional abuse, separation from family members, and backbreaking labor from sunrise to sunset. These stories provide a look at African American lives in slavery from every angle. There are narratives of household slaves, field slaves and slaves of mixed parentage. Their voices are filled with dignity and the quest for freedom and equal opportunities. While some of these books have duplicate narratives, I have chosen to include them because of other narratives they contain. These stories are the foundation of the African American literary tradition. Slave Narratives Andrews, William L., and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. Library of America, 1,025 pgs., 2000, $40.00 ISBN 1883011760 Included in this volume: Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw; Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; The Confessions of Nat Turner; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; Narrative of William W. Brown; Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb; Narrative of Sojourner Truth; Ellen and William Craft's Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Narrative of the Life of J. D. Green. Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation Berlin, Ira, et al., eds. W. W. Norton, 408 pgs., 1998, $49.95 with 2 companion CDs ISBN 1565844254 Free Press, 352 pgs., 2000, Paperback, $16.95 ISBN 156845870 Remembering Slavery is not a fictional account of life in bondage. These are real voices and real people telling their stories. In addition to the book, there is a companion audiocassette of the actual recorded interviews done by historians through the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s. The interviewers include Zora Neale Hurston and John Lomax. Great Slave Narratives Bontemps, Arna Beacon Press, 331 pgs., 1971, $20.50 ISBN 0807054739 During much of the nineteenth century, slave narratives were best-sellers for American publishers. Arna Bontemps chose for this book three outstanding examples of the genre: The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself, the first of the slave narratives to gain wide attention; The Fugitive Blacksmith, by the first African American to write a history of his people in America; and Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, an exciting story of a courageous slave couple's escape. William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond Clark, John Henrik, ed. Greenwood Publishing, 130 pgs., 1987, $59.95 ISBN 0313259577 William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond is a rebuttal to The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron. Styron's fictionalized autobiography of rebellion leader Nat Turner met with critical acclaim when it was released in 1968. The novel also met with fierce opposition from John Henrik Clark and other black writers, including Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, Vincent Harding, John A. Williams and Charles V. Hamilton who accused Styron of racism and revisionism. Classic Slave Narratives Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., ed. Signet Classic, 688 pgs., 2002, $6.95 ISBN 0451528247 Henry Louis Gates Jr., chairman of Harvard University's Afro-American Studies department, brings four of the most recognized slave narratives together in one volume. The InterFerebee, Dorothy L. is the author of 'How to Create Your Own African American Library' with ISBN 9780345452283 and ISBN 0345452283.