The classic slave narratives / edited and with an updated introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [621]-648).

Interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African -- History of Mary Prince, a West Indian slave -- Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave -- Incidents in the life of a slave girl / [Harriet Jacobs, writing as Linda Brent].

Before the end of the civil war, over one hundred former slaves had written moving stories of their captivity and by 1944, when George Washington Carver published his autobiography, over six thousand ex-slaves had written what are called slave narratives. No group of slaves anywhere, in any other era, has left such prolific testimony to the horror of bondage and servitude.