Opposition to Slavery

Opposition to slavery was voiced in the colonies as early as 1727, with Samuel Sewell's "Selling of Joseph," which soundly refuted the notion that slavery was supported by the Bible

William Lloyd Garrison
-editor of the only abolitionist national newspaper,
The Genius of Universal Emancipation

He proclaimed

"I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population"

Angelina Grimke
-aired her support of the anti-slavery cause
-women's rights in Appeal to Christian Women of the South
-challenged Southern women to use their influence in the home to bring about social change

The Slave Narrative

Emerged as a particular genre

In some ways, it paralleled the earlier captivity narratives

Both the slave and captivity narratives contained often horrific accounts of abuse at the hands of an alien culture

Victims are caught between the dangers of attempted escape and the longing for freedom

Hostage or slave

-grows with a hard-earned awareness and spiritual strength

Frederick Douglass's
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a classic in the genre

Harriet Jacobs's
Incidents Life of a Slave Girl
-slave narrative
-includes an account of her hiding in what was essentially the crawl space over her grandmother's house for seven years before she was able to escape to freedom

Her narrative emphasizes the psychological torments that slaves suffered

She writes...

"Slavery is terrible for men; but it is more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own"

Upcoming...

• Harriet Beecher Stowe "Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly Volume 1"
• Explore the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center website. http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/
• Complete assignment on calendar