BLACK MESSAGE/WHITE ENVELOPE:
and Authority
in theAntebellumSlave Narrative
Genre,Authenticity,
by John Sekora
How manythingspeople notionswe bringwithus into
theworld,how manypossibilitiesand also restrictions
of possibility.... To understandjust one life,you
have to swallow theworld.
- Salman Rushdie,Midnight'sChildren
Slave narrativesremainthe most importantand most neglectedbody of early
Americanwriting.The journeyback in thestudyofblackAmericanlifehas of course
theirdiversity,as
always led to the narratives,long recognized,notwithstanding
chronologicallyand psychologicallythe groundupon which laterblack writingis
based. FromChesnuttto Gaines,poets,novelists,and dramatistshad oftenrepeated
thistruthbeforescholarswerewillingto attend.
Theyremainedobscureso longformanyreasons,some of whichwillbe suggested
in laterportionsof thisessay. Obviouslytheylittleappealed to thosepersonsintent
MasterText of Americanhistoryand literature.
Afterthe
upon creatinga triumphal
were
dismissed
Civil War and undertheaegis of "nationalreconciliation,"
as, at
they
irrelevant
and
outdated
curiosities.
When
as
best,
proslaveryapologeticsgrew common as JimCrow laws at theturnof thecentury,such dismissalsbecame yetmore
total;thosefewscholarswho knewthenarrativesdisclaimedthemas misleading,inaccurate,tainted.By the 1930s, when UlrichPhillipsbegan his seriesof influential
historicalstudies,theywere not merelyignored;theywereactivelyrepudiated.Not
untiltheend ofWorldWar II did thisconsensusamonghistorians
beginto disappear.1
Butdisappearit did- slowly.The oral historiesgatheredin 1936-38by theFederal
Writers'Projectof the Works ProgressAdministration,
contributedgreatlyto this
reevaluation.AssembledfortheLibraryof Congressundertheheading"Slave NarrativeCollection,"thesetwentieth-century
accountspromptedyounghistoriansand
folklorists
to ask again about theimportanceof earliercenturies.In 1944 American
historiansweregoaded once morewhena Swedishscholarproduceda massive,twoof the historyof race relationsin the UnitedStates. Gunnar
volume interpretation
An
American
Dilemma argued not only the centralityof slavery for
Myrdal's
Americanhistory,but also thecentrality
of all black history.Withina decade, revisionisthistorians,led by JohnHope Franklin,HerbertAptheker,and FrankTannenbaum, beganto tella different
storyofslaveryand in so doingpartiallyrecoveredthe
value oftheslavenarratives.Thisrecovery,itshouldbe noted,entailedtheincorporationoftheearlierworkofsuchblackhistorians
as W. E. B. Du Bois,CarterWoodson,
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and CharlesS. Johnson,upon whomtheimportanceof thenarrativeshad neverbeen
two generationsof historianshave done once morewhat theabolilost.2Thereafter
tionistshad done 100 yearsbefore:verifiedthefacticity
of thenarrativesagainstrelevant contemporary
documents,and, afterintensescrutiny,establishedconclusively
their factual reliabilityand authenticity.Benjamin Quarles, John Blassingame,
SterlingStuckey,Eugene Genovese, and Lawrence Levine- to name but a few
scholars- have made thenarrativestheindispensableelementofmajorstudies.Their
influence
has beensuchthatfewstudentsnow doubtthehistoricalveracityofthenarratives.Indeed, most recognizethemas (in Arna Bontemps'sphrase) the Rosetta
Stonesof earlierAmerica.
scholarshave beenslowerthanhistoriansto put thenarrativesto
Althoughliterary
fulluse, theformerstruggled
mostto keepthemin publicview. Bontempsspentmuch
of his careerlocating,preserving,editing,and publicizingthem. His effortswere
needed because, outsidejournalsspecializingin Afro-American
writing,publishers
werereluctantto committhemselves.
Two valuabledissertations
longsoughtpublication,even thoughtheyprovedessentialto students,whatevertheirdiscipline.In 1949
CharlesH. Nicholscompleted,at Brown,hisPh.D. dissertation,
"A StudyoftheSlave
Narrative,"but could findno Americanpublisher.Finallypublishedas Many Thouof Indiana thenreprinted
sand Gone in theNetherlandsin 1965, theUniversity
it in
1969. Yet morestriking
is thecase ofthe1946 dissertation
Marion
Wilson
by
Starling,
"The Slave Narrative: Its Place in American LiteraryHistory,"which found a
publisheronly thirty-five
yearslater- in 1981. Because Starling'sstudyhas been required readingfor two generationsof literarystudents,the termsof its present
publicationmustseem ambiguous:theword literaryhas been droppedfromitssubtitle.
Many literaryscholarsno doubtawaitedthehistorians'judgmenton thehistorical
of thenarrators.Othersweredauntedby thesheervolumeand diversity
authenticity
of thewritingscalled slave narratives.(As we shall see, issuesof provenancein the
narrativesare oftenthornier
forthecriticthanforthehistorian.)BeforetheEmancipationProclamationat least two major typesappeared.The earlierincludesthenearly
100 narrativespublishedseparately-as broadside,pamphlet,or book-between
about 1760and 1863. Later,briefaccountsofslave liveswerepublishedin abolitionist
periodicalsfromabout 1830 to 1863. These latternumberwell over 400, range in
lengthfroma paragraphor two to severalpages, appearedin black periodicalsand
white alike, and were sometimesreprintedin book-lengthcollectionsof slave experiences.
InAs evidenceof theneedforlegislationduringthewar, theAmericanFreedmen's
narrativesobtainedin inquiryCommissionin 1863 gatheredand printedabout fifty
terviews.Betweentheend of thewar and theturnof thecenturyat least sixty-seven
additionalmen and womenborn in slaveryproducedbook-lengthaccountsof their
lives, the most famousof course being Booker T. Washington'sUp From Slavery
(1901). The largestbody of narrativesever assembledwere the 2194 interviewsof
formerslavesgatheredfortheWPA in 1936-38and publishedin totoforthefirsttime
in 1972. To thesecould be added thehundredsof lettersto and fromslavespreserved
in antebellumnewspapersand manuscript
collections;and recentbooks likeAll God's
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Dangers (1974), thelifeof Nate Shaw compiledby TheodoreRosengarten.3
Such is the spectrumof writingsknownas slave narratives,a termoriginallyreservedforthe separatelypublishedantebellumaccounts,but whose widenedapplicationover timeand circumstance
speaksof a genericpowerpresenteven in periods
ofinstitutional
neglect.Eighteenth-century
examples,likemanyotherAmericanprose
in theirtitles,oftenas thefirstsubstanworks,used theword"narrative"
prominently
tiveword; thephrases"runawayslave,""fugitive
slave,""escapedslave"wereregularly
added early in the nineteenthcentury.By the early 1830s at the latest,sponsors,
and reviewers
werewritingofa distinct
literary
genre.Certainlyreaderswere
printers,
by thennormallycallingaccountsofslave life,as relatedby a presentor formerslave,
"slave narratives."
have beensettledbeyond
At present,theroughquarrelsoverhistoricalauthenticity
oftheseparatelypublishednarratives
reasonablequestion,and thecentralimportance
is acknowledged.Yet theirliteraryvalue remainsmoot. Althoughliterarycriticsand
scholarsare at last interestedin the narratives,theydisagreewidelynot only on
of the subject.The issue of historical
methodsof approachbut also on definitions
has beenresolved,but thatofliterary
remains.To putthematauthenticity
authority
terin termsof contemporary
debate,some criticswould hold thattheslave faceda
paralyzingvoid of otherness.HoustonA. Baker,Jr.,putsthiscase wellwhenhe says:
For the black slave, the white externalityprovided no ontologicalor ideologicalcertainties;in fact,it explicitlydenied
slavesthegroundforbeing. . . . Insteadoftheebullientsenseof
a new land offering
limitlessopportunities,
theslave staringinto
theheartof whitenessaroundhim,musthave feltas thoughhe
had been flungintoexistencewithouta humanpurpose.4
ofwritingitself.Describingtheformation
In contrast,otherswould offerthecertitude
of a black literarytradition,MarthaK. Cobb arguesfortheimportanceof technique
in situatingslave writing:
ofpointof view
The first-person
voice presentstheparticularity
thedistinctive
thatallows thenarrator-protagonist
advantageof
hisexperiences,
and presenting
his
hisimage,ordering
projecting
in thecontextofhisown understanding
ofblackreality
thoughts
as it had workeditselfout in his own life. ... It is a persistent
of personal,human,and moralidendefiningand interpreting
tity,henceone'sworth,on theslavenarrator'sown termsrather
thanon termsimposedby thesocietythathas enslavedhimor
her.5
In significant
ways, each approach is equally trueand equally false. What links
them is the presumptionthat the essentialquestionsconcerningthe narrativeas
formhave beensatisfactorily
answered.I shallcontendthat,insofaras literary
literary
of
the
is
history
history literaryforms,thestudyof theslave narrativeis justbeginFor
the
narrativesas a group continueto pose as large a set of problemsfor
ning.
is a different
literary
historyas does anybody ofAmericanwritings;
literary
authority
matterfromhistoricalveracity.Still open today are the fundamentalquestionsof
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a distinctliterarygenre?If
literaryhistory.Do the slave narrativesin factrepresent
not, why not? If so, what are its distinguishingcharacteristics?Are these
characteristics
relativelyuniformthroughoutits history?What are the sources of
variationand change?Is changegreator smallduringthathistory?
Are thenarratives
a popular or an eliteliteraryform?Do theyrepresenta speciesof autobiography?
Why (and how) do theybegin?Why (and how) do theycome to an end? Such questionsconvergein theclusterof meaningsimplicitin thetermauthority:thecondition
ofbegetting,
and controlling
a writtentext.In Hegelianterms,
continuing,
beginning,
theissuesare parentage,propriety,
property,and possession.
I
I was myselfwithinthecircle,so thatI neithersaw nor
heardas thosewithoutmightsee and hear.
- FrederickDouglass
Entitlement
of a Hegeliansortis in factone of theforemost
issuesin thehistoryof
Americanslavery.Slaveownerspossessedtheincreasingly
elaboratestatecodes controllingthe labor and physicalbeing of slaves. Yet theysoughtmore-even the
words,theverylanguageof theirslaves. To masters,thewords of slaves appeared
On theone hand, theywere intimate,thepersonalexpressionof
doublysignificant.
selfand world. On theother,theywere potent,lethalthings.By seekingto control
slave language,masterssoughtto exact slave complicityin theirown subjugation.
Amongothermeans,mastersdemandedthatslavesaddressthemby themaster'sselfit seems,the
conferred
titleof"General"or "Colonel."The moreludicroustheartifice,
more obsessivelydid masterspress for its use: slaves alone could entitlemasters.
Ownersalso sentspiesintothefieldsto questionthefieldslaves,as thoughout ofnormal curiosity,as to how kindlytheirmasterswere. This tactic too reveals the
dependenceof mastersupon bondsmen:thefearedpowerof wordsand thelengthto
whichownerswould dissemblein orderto construct
and controla mastertextof their
of such owners demanded, insatiably,the right
own lives. The self-conceptions
words,theproperanswers.For theproperanswers,a slave could keep his lifeintact.
Withtheproperanswers,an ownercould keep his mastertextintact.What remains
is themaster'scompulsionof theslave
constantin thisarrayof linguistic
negotiations
to authorizethemaster'spower.6
The inescapable presenceof such negotiations-in all of theirforms-makes
matter.Slaveryand thelanguageof slaveryare virtually
slaveryverymucha literary
one mustask: Who is entitledto claim,to possess
coextensive.Of theslave narratives,
theselives?In whose languagedo theyappear?What historicalconditionspermitor
demand theirappearance?The earliestnarrativecited by Starlingis the ten-page
ofa trialconductedin Boston3 Augustto 2 November1703.Adam Negro's
transcript
Tryallclaimsattentionin Massachusettsbecause thetrialrehearsesthepublicquarrel
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of two prominent
figuresoverslavery.JudgeSamuel Sewellof theSuperiorCourtof
SuffolkCountyhad publishedan antislavery
pamphlet,The SellingofJoseph.In 1701
a wealthyslaveowner,JohnSaffin,repliedin a proslaverytractdescribing
histroubles
witha slave namedAdam, who accordingto Saffinnotonlyshirkedhistasksbuthad
theaudacityto runaway, seekingprotection
fromSewell.The trialin 1703 takesplace
of
over the terms Adam's bondage because none of theprincipalswill relent.In its
Adam does recounta smallportionof his lifein responseto interrogation;
transcript
mostof theputativeinformation
about his character,however,comesfromwitnesses
abolitionistnarrativesa centurylater:Adam is
forSaffin.His testimony
anticipating
himselfbut a proximatecause and marginalparticipantin a public disputebetween
whitegroups.He may not possesshis own narrative.Nonetheless,in an appeal over
whichSewellpresides,a jurygrantshis manumission.7
AlthoughAdam Negro's Tryalldoes not give us Adam's accountof his lifein his
own words,it does suggesta way in whicha slave'snarrativewillreachprint;forthe
withthenarare inscribedin thetextitself.The case is different
termsof acceptability
rativeof BritonHammon (1760), usuallyconsideredthefirstby an Americanslave.
Hammon's is a fourteen-pagetale of adventureand deliverancedictated to an
who shapesit intothepopularformof captivitynarrative.Dozens
amanuensis-editor
ofstoriesofIndiancaptivityhad beenpublishedbetween1680and 1760,all fashioned
to representthe trialsof a devout Christianin the savage and heathenhands of an
Indian tribe.An oft-usedmodel was Cotton Mather'sDecenniumLuctuosum:An
Historyof theRemarkableOccurrencesin theLong War, whichNew-EnglandHath
Had with the Indian Salvages (1699). Hammon's storyincorporatestwo atypical
elementsbeyond: it describesthe Indians of Florida,and it featuresa slave whose
spiritualerrorwas to fleehis owner'sprotection.Its elephantinetitlepage sketches
storyand appeal alike:
and Surprizing
DelivA Narrativeof theUncommonSufferings,
eranceof BritonHammon,A NegroMan, - Servantto General
Winslow, of Marshfield,in New-England;Who Returnedto
Boston,afterHaving BeenAbsentAlmostThirteenYears. Confrom
tainingAn Accountof themanyHardshipshe underwent
the Time he lefthis Master'sHouse, in the Year 1747, to the
Time of his Returnto Boston.- How he was cast away in the
Capes ofFlorida;- thehorridCrueltyand inhumanBarbarityof
theIndiansin murdering
thewhole Ship's Crew;- theManner
of his beingcarry'dby themintoCaptivity.Also, An Account
of his beingConfinedFourYears and Seven Monthsin a close
Dungeon;- And theremarkableMannerin whichhe metwith
hisgood old Masterin London;who returned
to New-Englanda
Passenger,in thesame Ship.
LikeDaniel Defoe's,Hammon'stitlepage effectively
summarizesthelocationand frequencyof his thrillsand tremors.Althoughhe has had, by any measure,an extraorhimselfseverely
dinarycareer,in hisprefacehe minimizesitswonder.He shallrestrict
to his betters:
in thenarrative,leavingall acts of interpretation
As myCapacitiesand Conditionsof Lifeare verylow, itcannot
be expectedthatI shouldmakethoseRemarkson theSufferings
I
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have metwith,or thekindProvidenceof a good GOD formy
Preservation,as one in a higherStation;but shallleave thatto
theReaderas he goes along,and so I shallonlyrelateMattersof
Fact as theyoccur to my Mind.
The decisiveportionof thisfinely-wrought
sentencewould seemto be itsacknowledgmentof a statusthatis "verylow." Having endured"UncommonSufferings"
because
he looked forfreedomoutsidethe securityand civilizationof "hisMaster'sHouse,"
Hammonhas learneda pious lesson. He will claimnone of thefreedomto providea
text- evenof his own life.The moraland literary
comprehensive
meaningof thatlife
will be determined
by others- by menof higherstation,like"hisgood Ole Master."
Ratherthancreatehis own mastertext,Hammoncontentshimselfwiththerecollectionof "Mattersof Fact"thatconfirmhis master'stext.
Butthereis moreat workin thepublicizingof Hammon'snarrative.It was printed
by Greenand Russellin Boston,where(presumably)earlierin 1760 also appearedthe
captivitynarrativeof a youngwhiteman,Thomas Brown,whose titlepage indicates
its relationto Hammon's:
A plain
NARRATIVE
Of the
UNCOMMON SUFFERINGS,
and
RemarkableDeliverance
of
THOMAS BROWN
Of Charlestown,in New-England;
Who returnedto his Father'sHouse theBeginning
of Jan.1760,
afterhavingbeen absentthreeYears and about eightMonths:
CONTAINING
An Account of the Engagementbetweena Party of English,
commandedby Maj. Rogers,and a PartyofFrenchand Indians,
in Jan. 1757; in which Capt. Spikemanwas kill'd; and the
Authorof thisNarrativehavingreceivingthreeWounds (one of
which thro' his Body) he was leftfor Dead on the Field of
Battle:How he was taken Captive by the Indians, and carried to
Canada, and fromthenceto theMissisippi;wherehe livedabout
a Year, and was again sentto Canada: - Duringall whichTime
he was not only in constantPerilof his own Life;but had the
of beingan Eye-Witnessof diversTortures,and
Mortification
shockingCruelties,thatwerepractisedby theIndianson several
English Prisoners;- one of whom he saw burnt to Death,
anothertiedto a Tree and his Entrailsdrawnout, Etc. Etc.
The January1760 date and theappearanceof at least threeeditionswithinthatyear
suggestthattheBrownnarrativemayhave beenpublishedbeforeHammon'sand was
in factits immediatemodel. Brown'sprefaceis quite similar,but emphasizesage:
As I am but a Youth, I shall not make thoseRemarkson the
I have metwith,or thekindAppearancesof a good
Difficulties
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GOD formy Preservation,
as one of riperYears mightdo; but
shall leave thatto the Readeras he goes along, and shall only
to
maybe sanctified
beghisPrayers,thatMerciesand Afflictions
me, and relateMattersof Fact as theyoccur to my Mind. NeitherHammonnor Brownis permitted
to possesshis lifestory.One is disqualified
by youth,theotherby his lowlyconditionas slave. Or perhapsbothare disqualified
forreasonsof class and education.Whateverthecircumstance,
theslave narrativeis
- designatedby otherness,
bornintoa worldof literary
confinement
plainness,facticand
dictated
forms.
ity,
WilliamL. Andrews,whose essay "The FirstFiftyYears of the Slave Narrative,
1760-1810,"is thebest studyof theearlynarrative,pointsout thatonly thosepubnarrativevoice.8The most
lishedin GreatBritainwerelikelyto possessa distinctive
famousof these,thatofOlaudah Equiano,was printedin Londonin 1789and was the
earliestto be writtenby itssubject.Equiano could not be considereda representative
fewyearsin theAmericas,havingbeenborn
authorin anycase, forhe spentrelatively
in what is now Nigeriaand spendingmuchof his lateryearsin England.Yet, while
distinctions
maybe drawnbetweennarrativesfirstpublishedin Britainand
significant
in
the
was soon formedacrossthe
those
UnitedStates,a relationship
amongprinters
with
American
editions,normallyunchanged,followinginitial British
Atlantic,
in New York withintwo yearsof the
narrative
was reprinted
publication.Equiano's
London editionand became the most influentialnarrativefor earliernineteenthcenturyabolitionistwriting.
For anotherexample,thepilgrimageand conversionstoryof JohnMarrant,first
printedin Londonin 1785,relatesthedevelopmentof a religiouscalling(and exciting
in A Narrativeof theLord's WonderfulDealings
martyrdom)
episodesof imminent
with J. Marrant,A Black (Now going to Preach the GOSPEL in Nova-Scotia).
in Bostonin 1789,itsoriginaleditionevincesthepatternof
Althoughitwas reprinted
editorialcontrolpresentin BritonHammon.The accountwas "Taken downfromHis
Own Relation,"but then "Arranged,Corrected,and Published by the Rev. Mr.
Aldridge."In thepreface,Aldridgeassuresreadersthatwhatfollowsis indeeda taleof
theLord'swonderful
dealings,notthemerestoryofa man. In Aldridge'shands,Marrant'slifestoryis an exemplarytale of crossing"thefence,whichmarkedtheboundary betweenthewildernessand the cultivatedcountry."In thewilderness-thatis,
- Marrantis chastenedby an encounterwiththeCherokees,
outsidewhiteinstitutions
in whose lands "savagedespotismexercisedits most terrifying
empire."Lest readers
worryovermuchabout thepresenceofexoticlifein thenarrative,Aldridgeconcludes,
"I have always preservedMr. Marrant'sideas, tho' I could not his language .. ." In
assumes a degree of control
this open admission, Marrant's amanuensis-editor
unacknowledgedin Hammon. Both eschew interpretive
questionsof meaningand
relucsignificance
(beyondGod's providence).ButAldridgefeelsyetmoreconstraint,
tantas he is to allow Marrantto speakforhimself.One need notbe a philosopherof
withsucheasy assumptionsabout theseparability
of
languageto feeluncomfortable
is compounded,
languagefromideas in thenarrativeof a humanlife.The discomfort
moreover,when one contemplatestheliteraryresult.For in Aldridge'shands,Marrant'sstoryis everybit as utilitarian-as plain, artless,and factual- as Hammon's.
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Anotherexcitingtaleof Indiancaptivity,
A Narrativeof theMost RemarkableParticularsin the Life of JamesAlbert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw,An AfricanPrince,as
Relatedby Himself(1770), is told by Gronniosaw,then"committed
to paper by the
of
a
for
of
the
town
Leominster
her
own
elegantpen
younglady
privatesatisfaction."
the
selected
is
not
white
Americans;thena
Again,
captivity
imposedby Indians,
by
black lifeis reshaped,re-written
forthe"privatesatisfaction"
of one of higherstation.
The patternrecurswhateverthesubgenreof thenarrative.A NarrativeoftheLifeand
Adventuresof Venture,A Native of Africa .... Related by Himself(1798) is the
earliestblack versionof theFranklinesquestoryof self-denial
and questformaterial
success.It also represents
thearrayof narrativesin whichan anonymousamanuensis
declaresthathe or she has added nothingsubstantialbut has been compelledto omit
much.
Storiesof criminals,particularlyof theirdyingconfessions,were as popular in
America as theywere in Britain.Printersof broadsidesregularlyadvertisedtheir
account. Because slaves had no legal status,the
eagernessto obtain any first-hand
- thedouble
criminalslave was a typeforwhichtherewas no clearwhitecounterpart
outlaw. Confessionsof black criminalswereso eagerlysoughtthattheyrepresent
the
and earlyninelargestgroupof slave narrativespublishedduringthelate eighteenth
teenthcenturies.Some examples:
The Lifeand DyingSpeechofArthur,a NegroMan: Who Was
Executedat Worcester,October20th, 1768. For a Rape Committedon theBody of One Deborah Metcalfe(1768)
Sketchesof theLifeofJosephMountain,a Negro,Who Was Executedat New-Haven,on the20thDay of October,1790,fora
Rape, Committedon the26thDay of May last (1790)
The Dying Confessionof Pomp, A NegroMan (1795)
a Black Man, Who Was
The Addressof AbrahamJohnstone,
Hanged at Woodburg,in theCountyof Glocester,and Stateof
New Jersey... July8, 1797 .... (1797)
Of coursethese"outlaw"accountswerefiltered
throughan editor.ForPomp's confesa
of
sion, printer popular broadsides,JonathanPlummer,offereda melodramatic
shapingofPomp'slife,one that"endeavoredto preservetheideas"ofthesubjectwhile
taking"libertyto arrangethe matterin my own way, to word his thoughtsmore
elegantly. . . thanhe was able to expressthem."As thenarrativeof a talentedand
successfulman like Venturecould be cast into the institutional
mold, so too the
criminalconfessioncould be shapedto a similarend: Pomp confessesthathe had had
a decentmasteryetwas drivento murder"byfitsand lunacy,"by listening
to hisown
innervoices. Crimeand madnessare allied.9
The dyingcriminalstood as powerfulwitnessto the beauties of the American
garden,forhe spokein itsabsence,defiledand ostracizedin thewilderness.The complementarynarrativeof religiousconversionofferedsuch testimonyfromwithin,
fromsomeonenot fatallydefiled.Perhapsinspiredby thesuccessof The NegroServant,a devotionaltractfirstpublishedin London late in theeighteenth
centuryand
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distributed
by theAmericanTractSociety,narrativesofconversionand ofministerial
labors grew in lengthand complexityduringthe earlynineteenth
century,as they
became vehiclesnot only of religiousproselytizing
but also of incipientabolitionist
sentiment.
The contextis once moretheneed of a whiteinstitution
to demonstrate
its
itsappeal even to thelowliestof thelow. Here an evangelical,
authority,
establishing
and worldlysuccesscan
usuallyMethodist,churchpressesitsclaimthatself-reliance
accompanyspiritualredemption.In timethatclaim will be pressedto its limitand
bringsome churchesintocollisionwithotherAmericaninstitutions,
especiallythose
upholdingslavery.In literaryterms,when a successstoryis writtenwithina white
Christianchurch,thenmasterand slave textscommingle.
The wide circulationof such textsamong formerslaves is well-known,the most
prominentwritersin theform- GeorgeWhiteand RichardAllen- tracingtheirinspirationto thework of predecessors.In theprefaceto his narrativeWhitereports,
"As readingthe accountsof the lives and religiousexperiencesof others,has often
quickenedand comforted
mysoul, and encouragedme in theway to heaven,I feelit
to
friends
of Jesuswith a shortdetail of the dealingsof God
the
my duty present
toward me; in my conversion,temptations,
religiousconflicts,call to preach,and
to
administer
of
some
thosebenefits
to them,whichI have
therein;
sufferings
hoping
derivedfromthewritings
of otherson thesame subject."(Anotherprobablesignthat
writerswere readingone anotheris thescenein at least fiveeighteenth-century
narrativesof thesubject'sholdinga book up to his ear, askingthebook to talkto him.)
White's"detail"is indeedshortand in formthoroughly
familiarto readersof white
ministerial
narratives.Accordingto WilliamAndrews,it is thefirstnarrativeby an
American-born
formerslave to struggle
towarda personalmemoir.A complementary
would see in White'sstorytheclash of different
forcesand textswithin
interpretation
thesame institution.10
Withinthehistoryofa literary
genre,each newworkin theseriesbothsupportsand
subvertstheseriesas a whole. Usinga mandatedform,Whiteattemptsto fulfill
all reof theministerial
life.Yet becausehe is a formerslave,his storycannotfit
quirements
preciselythe conventionalmold. A BriefAccountof theLife,Experiences,Travels,
and GospelLaboursofGeorgeWhite,an African.Written
by Himselfand Revisedby
a Friend(1810) is a tractwhosemessageis neitherabolitionnorrebellion.On thecontrary,it is a paean to Methodism,an institutionso compellingWhite will bear
countlessindignities
in orderto obtainfullmembership.Borna slave in Virginiain
1764, Whiterecountshis twenty-six
yearsin slavery,his manumission,and his later
and ebullientconversionto Christianity.
In facthis acceptanceofreligionsoon grows
into a vocation-an experiencemade familiarin many white ministerialnarratives- forhe realizes"God requiredme to preachhisgospel."Divine inspiration
is,
a whiteinstitution
however,hardlyadequateforentering
by thefrontdoor. Whenhe
applies to theNew York MethodistConferencefora licenseto preach,he is told,"It
was thedevilwho was pushingme on to preach."At odds, then,are two equallypotentdoctrines:thetheologicaltextof theInnerLightand thesocial textofblacksubordination.
In its modest way, White's account articulatesmuch of early Afro-American
literary
history.The narrativeas texthas ofcoursebeen"Revisedby a Friend,"butitis
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also the earliestby a slave born in America to bear the distinction,"Writtenby
Himself."The narrativeas textof a lifemakesclearthatWhite'syearningto preachis
As devoutas RichardAllen,as patientas JosiahHenson,as confident
heaven-sent.
as
BookerT. Washington,Whitewillnotbe written
off.He choosesto viewinstitutional
resistanceto his callingas spiritualdiscipline;he therefore
returnsseveraltimesto the
board ofexaminers.Whilethemastertextofhisage speaksof infernal
he
temptation,
willlistensolelyto his own divineguidance,to his own personaltext.Trustingin the
latter,he and his narrativeare eventuallyvindicatedwhenin 1807 he is grantedfull
statusas a preacher.
are thusdeeplyinscribedin theearlyslave narratives,
WhiteAmericaninstitutions
to theextentthattheywillbe publishedonlywhentheybeartheimprimatur
as wellas
thenihilobstatof thoseinstitutions.
Outsidewhitecivilizationlifeis, in thepreferred
termof earlyeditors,savage. BritonHammonis physicallyable to dictatehis story
onlyafterhe has escaped theravagesof theFloridaIndiansand returnedto thesancAfro-American
life,
tityof his master'shouse. So farfromrecountinga distinctive
Hammon'snarrativenowherebeyond the titlepage revealsthathe is black. Gronniosaw and Marrantseek no autonomyof selfhood,but rathera freedomfrom
self- thedisciplineof a whiteChristianchurch.AlthoughVentureSmithoftenfound
himselfcheatedby whitemen and theirorganizations,his narrativecan imagineno
at least,whiteinstitutions
existenceoutsidetheirconfines.To his amanuensis-editor,
weredivinelyordainedas well as omnipotent.It is preciselythe"insanity"
ofrebellion
againstsuch power thateditorsinscribedin thenarrativesof Arthur,JosephMountain,and Pomp. The mastertextis illuminatedwhenwe discoverJosephMountain,
convictedrapistawaitingdeath,astonishedat "theindulgence"and "thelenityof the
court"whichhas sentencedhim to die.
GeorgeWhite,on theotherhand,has read themastertextsso well thata chargeof
savageryis neverseriouslyat issue.His lifearguesthatifsuchtextsare to be accepted
as "universal,"theymustembraceat least one formerslave. By collatingslave and
mastertexts,White'snarrativemediatesthepolaritiesofhis time.His desireall along,
in thatdesireare the Prohe says, is for"libertyto speak froma text."Prefigured
metheanliterary
laborsof thenineteenth
century.Blacklibertyto speakfromthetext
oftheBibleheraldstheformation
ofa separateblackchurch;in White'slife,itleads to
hisrolein foundingtheAME Zion church.Blacklibertyto speakfromthetextoftheir
own lives suggestsa changingregisterin thevoice of slave narratives;in theircompositionthenarrativesafter1830 would recordtheseparationof themastertextinto
southernand northerntestaments.
II
"Letus have thefacts,"said thepeople. So also said
FriendGeorgeFoster,who always wishedto pin me
down to my simplenarratives."Give us thefacts,"said
Collins,"we will take care of thephilosophy."...
491
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"Tell yourstory,Frederick,"
would whispermy then
reveredfriend,WilliamLloyd Garrison.... I could
not always obey, forI was now readingand thinking.
New views of thesubjectwerepresentedto my mind.
It did not entirelysatisfyme to narratewrongs;I felt
like denouncingthem.I could not always curbmy
moralindignation. . . long enoughfora circumstantial
statementof thefactswhichI feltalmosteverybody
mustknow. Besides,I was growingand neededroom.
- FrederickDouglass, 1855
Two scenessignifytheliteraryhistoryof theearlierslave narrative.For themidnarrative,it is BritonHammon,prodigalslave and pious supplieighteenth-century
cant, walking penitentlytoward the home of General Winslow in Marshfield,
Massachusetts.In thishome,fromwhichhe had fledmorethantwelveyearsbefore,
he will seek succorand reconciliation.For theearlynineteenth
century,thesceneis
moreactive:GeorgeWhiteeloquentlyinsisting
upon his abilitiesbeforetheBoard of
Examinersof theNew YorkMethodistConference.Whiteseeksnotsuccorbutopporhe would enjoy lies not solelyin his own situationbut betunity;thereconciliation
tweenthepreceptsand thepracticeof his church.
Such tableauxvivantesare certainlycentralto Afro-American
literaryhistory,yet
theywere at bestperipheralto contemporary
printersof books. For themthemain
businessof writinglay elsewhere.We know frommany sources that early white
Americanwriterswerebusycreatinga MasterTextof thetriumphal
Americanerrand
into thewilderness,collectivelyinscribing
whatJohnSeelyehas called theAmerican
ProtestantEpic. Withinthatepic, importantchapterswere devotedto narrativesof
captivity(trialat thesavage, heathenhandsof theIndian),ofreligiousconversion,of
criminalconfessionand repentance,of spiritualpilgrimage(fromwildernessto
garden),and of gospel labors (trialas ministerof God's word). On the marginsof
thesechapterstheearliestaccountsofAfro-American
lifewerewritten.As WilliamL.
Andrewssuggests,the lives of exceptionalslaves were recordedif and only if they
werein all otherimportantrespectsconformableto popularand familiarpatternsof
theearliestinstance
Anglo-American
literaryform.Such marginalwritingrepresents
in Americanliterature
ofestablishing
samenesswithindifference,
ofexclusionby way
of inclusion.For a Foucault, it would representthe process by which a society
designatesand isolatesitsopposite;obversely,it is theprocessby whichthatsociety
displaysand increasesits power-by grantingtemporary,honorificstatusto nonmembers.
With abolitionistnarrativesafter1830 or so, the mode of inclusionis different.
Once theissueof slaveryhas dividedtheMasterTextofAmerica,theexperienceof a
formerslave is of decisiveliteraryimportance.Some eightyantislaverysocietieshad
been formedby 1830, and beforelong mostsoughtto publishslave livesas themost
vivid and compellingvehiclesof the justiceof theircause. Yet while the issue of
we mustask whetherthe contextof authorshiphas
slaveryhas been transformed,
changedaccordingly.Here themonumentalsceneis a meetingof theAmericanAnti492
CALLALOO
Slavery Society in Nantucket.Afterhis escape FrederickDouglass discoversthe
power of Garrison'sLiberator,the readingof which,he says, "senta thrillof joy
throughmy soul, such as I had neverfeltbefore!"
I could do but little;but whatI could, I did witha joyfulheart,
and neverfelthappierthanwhen in an anti-slavery
meeting.I
seldomhad muchto say at themeetings,
becausewhatI wanted
to say was said so muchbetterby others.But,whileattending
an anti-slavery
conventionat Nantucket,on the11thofAugust,
1841, I feltstronglymoved to speak, and was at thesame time
much urgedto do so by Mr. WilliamC. Coffin,a gentleman
who had heardme speak in thecoloredpeople'smeetingat New
The
Bedford.It was a severecross,and I took it up reluctantly.
truthwas, I feltmyselfa slave,and theidea ofspeakingto white
people weighedme down. I spoke but a fewmoments,whenI
felta degreeof freedom,and said what I desiredwith considerableease. Fromthattimeuntilnow, I have been engagedin
- withwhatsuccess,and with
pleadingthecause ofmybrethren
what devotion, I leave those acquainted with my labors to
decide.11
While slaveryis incidentalto readersof Hammon and White,it is essentialto
who are black
Douglass's audience.Becausehe is "pleadingthecause of mybrethren"
and enslaved,hisnarrativehas no preciseantecedentin eighteenth-century
American
literature.The abolitionistnarrativescertainlyrepresenta new stage and period in
literaryhistory.Againstthe earliernarratives,theydisplaya greaterlength,an extendedvocabulary,a different
setof social attitudesand philosophicpresuppositions.
The interest,circulation,and sales theygenerateare vastlygreater.They reveal a
different
way of orderingslave lives, a change immediatelyapparentin narrative
structure.
The escape is now usuallypivotalin timeand theme.More elaboratebeginningsemphasizeblood relations.Endingsemphasizereconciliationwith a different
kindofsocial family/institution,
notreligiousbutpolitical.Formsof discoursewithin
the narrativesthus acquire a different
mix, fromthe predominantspiritualselfexaminationof Equiano and White to the politicalcommentaryof Douglass and
WilliamWellsBrown.Indeed,thelaternarratives
are shapednearlyas muchby moral
as by theformof thelifestory.
and politicalinterests
These differences
the continuitiesof the period outweighthe
notwithstanding,
changes.In the sceneDouglass describes,two MasterTextsof Americanexperience
confrontone another,each armedwithformidableinstitutional
accoutrements.
He
speaksof thesouthern,proslaveryvisionofAmericanhistory.Buttheoccasion- the
moralas well as thephysicalgeography- is thenorthern
vision.He steps
abolitionist
into a world in which the Liberatorleads a networkof dozens of printersand
fromthe Northeastto the Midwest.He learnsof antislavery
periodicalsstretching
meetingsbecause theyare regularand publiclyannounced.He is promptedto attend
because he has learnedthatblacks are not excluded.He is encouragedto speak and
thento writebecause theabolitionistgroupshave decidedthatfirst-hand,
eyewitness
of slavery.He is
accountsby formerslaves constitutethemostdamningindictment
able to continuesuchworkbecause he has joineda loose but elaborateorganization,
493
CALLALOO
in scope and resources,of clergymen,
transatlantic
writers,
politicians,businessmen,
and advocates. For literarypurposes,both slaveryand antislavery
editors,printers,
have been institutionalized.
Amongwhiteopponents,each views theotheras traitor
to theAmericanmission;each is to theothertheserpentin theAmericanEden. Each
sees Douglass's entranceinto thisquarrelas a veryseriousmatter- one thatmight
alterthecontemporary
balance. Apologistsforslaverydid theirutmostto discredit
Garrison's
forces
did
theirbest to publicizehim. Yet theissue over whichthey
him;
not
was
the
fought
Douglass
speakeror Douglass theauthor.Ratheritwas a narrower
issueof theirown defining.
insofaras he represented
theexDouglass was important
of
therefore
of
(and
perience slavery
antislavery).
whiteauDefiningtheinnermeaningof slaveryto a tepidand confusednorthern
diencewas theinitialpublictaskofmostabolitionistsocieties.Iftheywereto issuean
alternative
textof theAmericanstory,theywereobligedto makeitnotonlynational
but also psychologically
compellingand rhetorically
persuasive.12
Materiallytheirinstruments
weretheprinting
and thepulpit.In additionto a
press,thelectureplatform,
regularflowof giftedspeakers,theirvehiclesincludedsermons,petitions,and pamand quarterlyjournals;
phlets;wholenewspapersand partsthereof;weekly,monthly,
ballads, broadsides,and poetry;giftannuals and othercollections;essays,dramas,
novels,and travelbooks.13It is but small tributeto thepower of theword to recall
- "a tradewhichprobablyproduced
thatGarrisonhad been apprenticedas a printer
moreabolitionistactivists,in both Britainand American,thanany other."14Vitality
in abolitionmeantthatits textmustmove- throughNew England,New York City,
Pennsylvania,thenew farmlands fromupstateNew York across Ohio and Illinois,
and Canada. Garrisonwrote in 1832 that it would be the purpose of antislavery
societies"to scattertracts,like rain-drops,over theland, on thesubjectof slavery."
The Declarationof Sentiments
adoptedby theAmericanAnti-SlaverySocietyat its
and exfoundingconventionvowed thattheorganizationwill "circulateunsparingly
tractsand periodicals."
tensivelyanti-slavery
Whiteabolitionsocietiesboth inheritedand createda world of antislaverytexts.
Alice Adams's studyof the period 1808-31 affirms
the continuinginfluenceof narrativeslikethatofEquiano and thosepublishedby theAmericanTractSociety.More
recentand directwas the work of severallocal antislaverysocieties,the American
ColonizationSociety,and many individualabolitionistslike BenjaminLundy. The
newergroupswho followedthusdid not initiatethemovement;rathertheymade it
moreradical,prominent,
and immediate.By themid-1830s,thenew radicaltenorhad
been establishedin periodicalsby Lundy's Genius of UniversalEmancipation,the
Abolitionist,the African Observer, the American Anti-SlaveryAlmanac, the
American Anti-SlaveryReporter,the Anti-SlaveryExaminer,the Anti-Slavery
Record,theEmancipator,theHerald of Freedom,theLiberator,and Slave's Friend,
and at least twentyotherjournalsof some duration.Such landmarksin theliterary
historyofslaverywererivaledin influence
by a longseriesofpamphlets,amongthem
Garrison'sThoughtson AfricanColonization(1832) and WilliamJay'sInquiryinto
the Characterand Tendencyof the AmericanColonizationSocietyand American
the myriadpersonal and regional
Anti-SlaverySocieties (1835). Notwithstanding
differences
amongthem,as one thisnew generationofagitatorspresseditsmessageof
494
CALLALOO
moral urgency.In the firstnumberof the Liberatorfor 1 January1831, Garrison
declared:
I am in earnest- I willnotequivocate- I willnotexcuse- I will
not retreatan inch- AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathyof
thepeople is enoughto makeeverystatueleap fromitspedestal,
of thedead.
and to hastentheresurrection
Garrison'sshoutingdid not rearrangethestatuary,but it was certainlyheardacross
theAtlantic.By July1836 theRev. Thomas Price,editorof Moses Roper'snarrative,
was ready to assistin themoral resurrection
of the living.He wrotein theeditor's
prefaceto thefirstissue of Slaveryin America:
What can we do to rescueChristianity
fromreproach,and to
save our Americanbrethren
fromthenaturalconsequencesof
theirguiltin upholdingthishorridsystemofimpietyand wrong?
It is to meet thisinquiry,and to aid in the adoption of such
measuresas are calculatedto arouse theconscienceand to call
forththereligiousprinciplesof thepeople of theUnitedStates,
thatthisperiodicalis commenced.
These appeals suggestmuchof thequalityof slave
Urgency-conscience-insistence.
narrativesafter1830. Because they summarizewhat white abolitionistsponsors
textstheywould publish,theyindicatetheinstitutional
consoughtin theantislavery
ditionsunderwhichmany of the narrativeswere composed. Despite the enormous
politicalchangesoccurringin Americabetweenthetimeof BritonHammonand that
ofFrederick
continuities
are arresting.
Whiletheydo promotea
Douglass, theliterary
in
new way of understanding
the
changes vocabulary,social attitude,and
slavery,
follow
the
revised
agenda of theabolitionistmovement.
philosophicalpresupposition
Whiletheynow emphasizetheworkingsof"thishorridsystemofimpietyand wrong,"
theycontinueto be orderedas lifestoriestoldin thefirstperson.Whiletheyare often
accountsof men and womenundergoingprofoundtransformation,
theycontinueto
or completedby
be, in themain,recordedor editedor polishedor reviewedor verified
whitesponsors.Becausenearlythirty
whiteantislaverysocietiesplayedsome partin
thepublicationof narrativesafter1830, thesignalquestionis, what did abolitionists
believetheywere doingwhen theysponsoredslave narratives?
Initiallythey were simplyfollowingprecedent.Britishand Americanreligious
groupshad printedaccountsby and about slaves fromthe 1770s, with increasing
stressupon theirvalue as abolitionistdocuments.Nineteenth-century
editorsknew
suchwritings
themin pamphlet,preface,and editorial.Inwell, citingand reprinting
deed, itwas theirbusinessto printas manyas theycould,as oftenas possible.For,as
theyoftenacknowledgedto one another,theyfaced seeminglyinsuperableodds.
Most whitenortherners
wereas indifferent
as Garrisonbelievedthemto be; forthem
slaverywas remote,abstract,inconsequential.It was theabolitionists'job to dispel
thatindifference.
Once again theirmethodsfollowedtheBritish:in Garrison'swords,
at theopeningof his Thoughts,"to employactiveand intelligent
agentsto plead the
cause incessantly,and to formauxiliarysocieties."While abolitionistwriterswould
495
CALLALOO
be theagenteducatedaudiencesof thecities,itwould henceforth
reachtherelatively
lecturerwho would carrythecause boldlyand vividlyinto themoreruralpartsof
New England,New York, and theWest.
Requiringlargemeasuresofcourage,endurance,and rhetoricaltalent,agentsstood
in thefleshas witnessesagainstslavery.Theywereyetmorevaluableiftheystoodas
The AmericanAnti-Slavery
eyewitnesses.
Societyat itsfirstconventionin 1833called
forthe use of blacks,especiallyformerslaves, as agents,arguingthatonly through
hearthevictims'side ofslavery.One of Gartheirtestimony
would mostnortherners
rison'scorrespondents
put thecase briefly:
The publichave itchingears to hear a coloredman speak, and
a slave. Multitudeswillflockto hearone ofhisclass
particularly
speak.... It would be a good policy to employa numberof
coloredagents,ifsuitableones can be found.15
fora formerslave to speak on a nationalplatform
The importanceof an opportunity
shouldnotbe minimized.Butneithershouldthedemandforsuitability.BritonHammon and GeorgeWhitewereallowed to tellof theirlivesbecause thoselivescould be
forms.Blackabolitionistlectureswerelikewise
absorbedintowhitesocial and literary
of
to
rules
white
embrace
the
antislaverydecorum.As one midwestern
expected
of
a
the
verylong addressby WilliamWells Brown,
periodicalreported highlights
ofexpressionweremorethanwe expectedto see
"His dignityofmanner,hispropriety
in one who had spenttheearlypart of his lifeas a slave."16
Thus by the mid-1830smany abolitionistgroups were activelyseekingformer
slaves as well as freeblacks. Obtainingarticulatespeakersforthelecturecircuitwas
theirprimarygoal, but theyalso soughtout forpublicationthepersonaltestimony
of
less sophisticatedfugitives.(It is an unmistakablefactthatwhiteabolitionistsoften
treatedthesetwo quitedifferent
groupsofblacksin similarfashion.)Garrison,forinstance,introducedthenarrativeofJamesCurryto readersoftheLiberator(10 January
1840): "It is a real case, and no fiction,as writtendown fromthe lips of the selfemancipatedbondmanby a talentedfemalewho will acceptour thanksforthefavor
itforpublicationin theLiberator."In orderto identify
shehas done in communicating
had by about 1837 developeda series
all possibleblack assistants,whiteabolitionists
of questionsthat,in one versionor another,was used thereafter
acrosstheNorthand
West. Proper interrogation
would identify,thenguide, a trueabolitionist,Lundy
counseled Garrisonin 1829. Garrisonstronglyrecommendedits use by fledgling
societiesand periodicals.TheodoreWeld used a questionnaire
to selectthefirstgroup
of seventytravelingagentsin 1836-37 and again, at the agents'firstconvention,to
traintheagentsin techniquesof speakingand organizing.Each speechwas to include
of theconditionsof theslave system,orderedaccorda detailed,forceful
description
to
the
indifferent
or ignorantwhiteaudiencewould wish answered;
an
ing
questions
an ardentappeal forslaves whose humanitywas beingdenied;and a repudiationof
theslaveholders,clergymen,
and politicianswho supportedthesystem.
The listmightbe used by even theleastexperiencedinterviewer,
foranswerscould
be scrutinizedlaterforvalue and authenticity.
as
a
routine
methodfor
Developed
an
immediate
and
whether
a
or
black
man
woman
had
resolving
problem
discovering
496
CALLALOO
a storyof interestto white audiences,interrogation
had several consequencesfor
it
initiated
the
were
literaryhistory.Certainly
processthroughwhichmanyfugitives
into speakersagainstslaveryand thenintoauthorsof slave narratives.
transformed
BesidesDouglass, the authorswho began as lecturerswould includeHenryBibb,
HenryBox Brown,WilliamWells Brown,AnthonyBums, Lewisand MiltonClarke,
Ellen and WilliamCraft,JosiahHenson, LunsfordLane, JamesW. C. Pennington,
Moses Grandy,AustinSteward,HenryWatson,and manyothers.(It also prompted
theadventof professionalblack writers,forWilliamWells Brownwas able to earn
whileDouglass was
partofhislivingfromhisfictionand journalismofthemid-fifties,
with
the
version
of
favored
second
his
narrative,
equally
My Bondage and My
Freedomof 1855.)
As it led to theprinting
of thenarratives,theabolitionistimprint
was decisivein its
for
"facts"
and
for
of
a
those
facts.
Chancingupon a
predisposition
particularordering
potentiallyusable black story, abolitionistsponsors concernedthemselveswith
elementalquestions:Did the subjectactuallyexist?Was he or she actuallya slave?
Werethenames,dates,places ofthestoryfactuallyreliable?Was thesubjecta suitable
of theantislavery
how
cause? These questionsansweredsatisfactorily,
representative
could the storybe organizedmorepersuasively?Fromsuch concernwithfactuality
followed,on the one hand, a habitualattitudeof disbelieftowardblack accounts.
whenlistening
to tales
cautionedagainstcredulity
Agentsand editorswerefrequently
of slavery,and antislaveryperiodicalsregularlynotedinstancesof blacks posingas
Not black storytelling
but whiteauthentication
made forusable narratives.
fugitives.
Price,writingin Slaveryin America(August1837) of thenarrativeof Moses Roper,
whichhe helpedprepare,says thefirstquestionall readerswill ask is, "Is it true?"By
hisown avowal, Pricesays yes,forRoper"has stoodtheordealof themostsevereexamination,he has been solemnlywarnedof theconsequencesof deception...." On
theotherhand,therefolloweda heavyuse ofauthenticating
documentsprintedbefore
and afterthenarrativeitself.A frontispiece
lettersdeclared
portraitand testimonial
thatthesubjectexistedand was who he said he was. Letterstestifying
to thismoral
and intellectualcharacteravowed thathe was reportingeventsas he knew them.
thattheyhad heardthesubjectlecturelongbeforethenarrativereached
Many testify
writtenform.In his introduction
to thenarrativeof HenryBibb,LuciusMatlockgoes
further-citingthosetimeshe witnessedBibb writingportionsof his story.Through
- thecareful
such deviceseditorsand sponsorssoughtnot merelyfactsbut facticity
of
material
into
a
and
collective
invulnerable
whole.
The prolayering heterogeneous
cess began with a seriesof collectivelygatheredquestions,and oftenended in a
volume thatwas collectivelywritten.If the storyof a formerslave was thussandwichedbetweenwhiteabolitionistdocuments,thestorydid carrytheaegisofa movementpreachinghistoricalveracity.The verifiabletruthof thatstory,accordingto
whiteabolitionists,is thattheslave has preciouslittlecontrolover his life.
The facticitysought in abolitionistwritingwas, by definition,
not that of individualizedAfro-American
life,but ratherthe concretedetail of lives spentunder
forthenarrativesroutinelynoted that"slaves
slavery.Reviewsand advertisements
had a simplebut movingstory"to tell- use of thesingularnoun testifying
to beliefin
an undifferentiated
samenessof existence.Sincetheseliveswerenearlyanonymous497
CALLALOO
Garrisonianssometimesallegedthattheirblack agentshad no storiesuntiltheabolitionistsgave themone - sponsorsassumedin advancethattheyknewwhatslavelives
should contain.AngelinaGrimke'sattitudeis not at all unusualwhen,in a letterto
Weld in 1838, she impliesthatshe alreadyknowswhat storya fugitiveand stranger
would tell: "Such narrativesare greatlyneeded. Let it come burningfromhis own
lips... it must do good.... Many and many a tale of romantichorrorcan the
slaves tell."17Of courseby 1838 antislaveryworkerslike Grimkehad groundsfor
horror"fromfugitives
assumingpriorknowledge.Theyhad elicitedtalesof"romantic
and had sponsoredthemon thelecturecircuit.Blackagentscommonlydistributed
announcements
of meetingswithsuch an appeal as "All who wishto hear theworkings
of Slaveryfromone of its own recipientsare invitedto attend."Audiencescame in
large numbersto the meetings,apparentlyto hear of phylogeny,not ontogency.
Douglass foundpraise
Describinghimselfas "a graduateof thepeculiarinstitution,"
both as a superiorand as a representative
exampleof theex-slave,as in thisaccount
fromthe Salem Register:
oftheeveningwas theaddress
The mostwonderful
performance
of FrederickDouglass himselfa slave only fouryearsago! His
remarksand his mannercreatedthe most indescribablesensationsin themindsof thoseunaccustomedto hearfreemen
ofcolor speak in public,muchmore to regarda slave as capable of
such an effort.
He was a living,speaking,startling
proofof the
folly,absurdityand inconsistency(to say nothingworse) of
slavery.18
It was preciselythisabilityto startlethe ignorantthatreviewerssingledout when
Douglass laterwrotehis narrative.Designed"toexerta verywide influenceon public
opinion,"EphraimPeabody wrote,copies of the narrative"are scatteredover the
foror againstslaveryare feeble,comwholeNorth,and all thetheoretical
arguments
paredwiththeseaccountsof livingmenof whattheypersonallyenduredwhenunder
its dominion."19 Because whiteabolitionistsmostoftenapplaudedblack lecturersas
we findsimilarresponsesto the
cause, notsurprisingly
usefulagentsof theantislavery
writtennarratives.Hence theconclusionto Peabody'sreviewof Douglass: "He is one
of the livingevidencesof that thereis in the colored populationof the South no
naturalincapacityfor the enjoymentof freedom;and he occupies a positionand
possessesabilitieswhichenable him,ifhe pursuesa wise course,to be a mostuseful
laborerin thecause of humanrights"(78).
As personalidentities
wereoftenabsorbedintotheabolitionist
crusade,so too were
narratives.
Those
under
the
bannersuggest
personal
publishedseparately
antislavery
how titlepages could preparereadersfora proper,collectiveresponse:
Slaveryin theUnitedStates:A NarrativeoftheLifeand Adventuresof CharlesBall, a Black Man, Who Lived FortyYears in
Maryland,South Carolina,and Georgiaas a Slave (1836)
Narrativeof JamesWilliams,an AmericanSlave; Who was for
Several Years a Driveron a CottonPlantationin Alabama. As
relatedto J. G. Whittier
(1838)
498
CALLALOO
Lifeand AdventuresofZamba, an AfricanNegroKing,and His
Experiencesof Slaveryin South Carolina. Writtenby Himself,
Correctedand Arrangedby PeterNielson(1847).
NarrativesoftheSufferings
ofLewisand MiltonClarke,Sons of
a Soldier of the Revolution;duringa Captivityof More than
TwentyYearsamongtheSlaveholdersof Kentucky,One of the
So-Called ChristianStatesof NorthAmerica(1848)
Narrativeof Henry Box Brown, Who Escaped fromSlavery
Enclosedin a Box 3 FeetLong and 2 Wide. Written
froma Statement of Facts Made by Himself. With Remarks upon the
RemedyforSlavery.By CharlesSteams (1849)
Slave Lifein Georgia: a Narrativeof the Life,Sufferings,
and
Escape ofJohnBrown,a FugitiveSlave Now in England.Edited
by L. A. Chamerovzow(1855)
Autobiographyof a FugitiveNegro: His Anti-SlaveryLabours
in the UnitedStates,Canada, and England(1855) NB: herethe
subject'sname, Samuel RinggoldWard, is excludedfromthe
titleof an autobiography.
Twenty-TwoYears a Slave and FiftyYears a Freeman(1857).
The narrativeof AustinSteward.
Slave Lifein Virginiaand Kentucky;or,FiftyYearsofSlaveryin
the SouthernStatesof America.By FrancisFedric,an Escaped
Slave (1863)
As thesetitlessuggest,antislaverysocietiessoughtto compilea moralgeographyof
slavery,withaccountsfromeach of the slave statesand each of themain typesof
slave labor. In theirsearchfor"coverage,"agentsand editorswerealertto noveltyof
- as in themethodsof escape used by theCraftsand Box Brown- but
circumstance
so
only long as it supportedwithoutsubvertingabolitionistdoctrine.Several antislaveryspokesmenworriedthatan emphasisupon fullcoveragewould levelissuesof
and obscurerelevantdistinctions,
but theywerenonetheless
to
committed
significance
"exposethewrongsof Slaveryin all of theirphases."
The facticity
of exposurewas declarednot onlyin titles,but also in themanyletto thenarratives.Ifreadersneglectedtheessentialinters,prefaces,and introductions
formationof thetitlepage, thefollowingpages would correcttheirexpectations.
Thesepages . . . willpresent. . . a faithful
viewof theopinions
and feelingsof the colored population,constituting
so large a
portionof thepeople [in theSouth]. [The reader]will see here
portrayedin the language of truth,by an eye witnessand a
thehardships,and theevils whichare inslave, thesufferings,
flictedupon themillionsofhumanbeings,in thenameofthelaw
of theland and of theConstitution
of theUnitedStates.20
Fromtheprospectusto CharlesBall'snarrative,thesewordsdeclarethecollectiveemmovement.Ball'sidentity
as a former
slavehas beendoubted
phasisof theantislavery
499
CALLALOO
to thisday, yetthereis no doubtabout thegoals of his tale. LuncefordLane said the
purposeof his storywas to "castsome lightupon thepolicy of a slaveholdingcomand HenryBibbwrotethathe allowedhisstoryto appearinprintonlyto exmunity,"
"the
sinsand evils of slaveryas faras possible."Wells Brownused thestandard
pose
when
he said he wroteto describeslavery"as it is, and itsinfluenceupon the
phrase
moralsand characterof theAmericanpeople."As alwaysDouglass put theissuewith
admirablebrevity.His missionwas to exposeslavery,he wrote,"becauseto exposeit
is to killit."Narratorsas individualswithparticularstorieswere thussituatedat the
intersection
of collectivizing
forces.Ifhe wereto discoverpersonalizing
wordsforhis
of
abolition.
life,he mustdo so withintheinstitutional
Indeed,somewriters
language
are apologeticthattheirown lives cannotbe subordinatedfurther.
AustinSteward
says he has heardall theargumentsin favorof slaverymanytimesand frommany
people who shouldknowbetter.The weightof suchdefenseshas drawnhimintothe
fray:
The authoris therefore
themorewilling- nay, anxious,to lay
of
such
alongside
argumentsthehistoryof his own lifeand experiencesas a slave, thatthosewho read may know what are
some of the characteristics
of that highlyfavoredinstitution,
whichis soughtto be preservedand perpetuated.
Moses Roper,in theprefaceto hisnarrative,protestsin advance thathe does notwish
himselfto appear "conspicuous"in thenarrativethatfollows.Friendsat antislavery
meetingsimpelledhimto offerhis story,but he will do so only"withtheview of exposingthecruelsystemof slavery."
The growthof a nationalpoliticalmovementwithagents,branches,presses,and
publicationsacrossthenorthern
partof theUnitedStatesand in GreatBritain;theagtheinterviewing
of potentialblack agents;
gressivequestioningof slave informants;
theprinting
and frequent
ofeverybitof information
fromeverykindof inreprinting
formantby antislaveryperiodicals;the developmentof a lecturecircuitacross the
and documentary
evidenceof the
North;in books, theextensiveuse of testimonials
truthof theauthor'sassertionsregardingslavery- theseand otherinstitutional
conventionsserveas implicitguarantorsin theact of readinga slave narrative.Certainly
but more, theytestifyto historicalstrengthand moral
theyguaranteecredibility,
Each
little
book
is
escorted
of all elementsof the
vitality.
by an army.The facticity
slave narrativeis essentialhere.Forreadersare notbeingasked to admirea styleor to
deciphera semanticcode. Rathertheyare beinggoaded to "lenda helpinghand to the
extinction
of thatmonstroussystemwhichspoilsall thatis good in America,"in the
words of Thomas Price. They are beingrecruitedinto thatarmy.
Clearlythemeaningof slave writingdid not inhereexclusivelyin thetextof a narrativealone. Meaningflowedintoand out of a narrativein a seriesof acts of power.
The primaryabolitionistsrespectedlanguageas an instrument
of power, to be used
withcareto influence
humanbehavior.As sponsorstheysaw themselves
as guardians
of thecommonweal; authorstheyviewedas moldersof civicmorality;and readers,
as corrigiblecitizens.All are necessaryagentsin thereformation
of America.All are
At issueis theaction,not thewriting
actorsin theimpendingdramaof reformation.
thatinducedit.
500
CALLALOO
ofpowerthan
Becausethespokenwordwas regardedas a moreflexibleinstrument
thewritten,
of
over
writers.
An audience
societies
course
favored
lecturers
antislavery
could be movedmoreeasilywhenan encounterwas face-to-face,
whenit could participatethroughquestionsand comments,when thewords of themessagecould be
revised,elaborated,returned.Writtennarrativeswere neededto repeatthemessage
and to reachacrosstheAtlanticand intoregionslecturers
mightnotvisit.The editor
of thefirsteditionof JosiahHenson'snarrative(1849) said just thisin his "advertisement"to thebook:
The narrativein thisform,necessarilyloses the attractionderivedfromtheearnestmanner,thenaturaleloquenceof a man
who tellsa storyin whichhe is deeplyinterested;
butitis hoped
thatenoughremainsto repayperusals,and thatthecharacterof
theman, and thestriking
natureof theeventsof his lifewill be
thoughtto justifytheendeavorto make themmoreextensively
known.
To be persuasive,to possesstheplenitudeof a giftedspeaker,a writtennarrativehad
to be pretested,its frozentextdefrosted.Abolitionistquestionsprepareda black
forthewishesof his audienceand helpedto orderthestoryhe would
speaker/author
tell.Withexperiencehe would incorporatethequestionsof his audience- modifying
as neededfora groupmoreor lessinformed,
moreor lesshostile.Douglass relatesthe
morethanonce- to hearagain,forexample,his clashes
largenumberswho returned
withCovey or withAuld - who came to be informed
to be moved. Like
and returned
theotherblack agents,Douglass learnedwell whatinterrogators
and audiencesalike
came to expect.One ofthemostwidelyrecognizedbooks everpublishedby themovementwas AmericanSlaveryAs It Is: Testimonyofa ThousandWitnesses,
printedby
the AmericanAnti-SlaverySocietyin 1839. Its compilers,Theodore and Angelina
Weld, culledsouthernnewspapersof 1837-39fora documentary
record,in southern
words, of the punishmentsinflictedby slaveowners.Its 224 pages were densely
packed and double-columned,
organizedby visitors'accountsand such headingsas:
Iron collars,chains,fetters,
and hand-cuffs
Iron head-frame
Chain coffles
Brandings,maimings,and gun-shotwounds
Slaves burnedalive
Slaves roastedand flogged
Slave drivento death
Femaleslave whippedto death,and duringthetorturedelivered
of a dead infant.
. . .Slave choppedpiece-meal,and burnt.
When white editorslike Weld were criticizedas horror-hunting
and sensationthemselvesretailedatrocitystoriesand that
seeking,theyrepliedthat southerners
slaverywas innatelyhorrible."Abolitionists
exaggeratethe horrorsof slavery?Impossible! They have never conceived half its horrors!"was Garrison'sresponse.
Withoutdenyingtheabolitionistpenchantfortalesof "romantic
horror,"one can say
was intensein themysteries
and the
theywerenotbeingdisingenuous.Whiteinterest
501
CALLALOO
- in thequestionsaskedby
ofslavery,and itcontinuedafterEmancipation
barbarities
in
the Freedmen'sInquiryCommissionin 1863 and again by theWPA interviewers
-no doubtsettinga durablepattheabolitionisteffort
1936-38.21What distinguishes
tern- is theattemptto evokea structured
expositionofslaverywithintheformofthe
wantedto know: the
lifestory.Questioningformerslaves,interviewers
consistently
of birthand family,thecharacterof theslaveowner'shouseholdand
circumstances
regimen,and thereasonforescape and itsmeans.Particularly
theysoughtthenames,
of
the
slave's
the
owner's
cruel
overseersand resisting
dates, places
family,
family,
and harshsuppressionof thewill to read and write,the
slaves, brutalpunishments
in the owner's household,the kinds and amount of labor
depth of Christianity
of slaveryon thesubjectand thesubject's
demandedand of food supplied,theeffect
and
to
final
attempts escape,
flight,and a briefaccountof lifesincethe
family,plans
with
one
communication
emphasizing
antislaverygroups.
escape
It is no revelationthattheseare thetopicsaroundwhichmostof thenarrativesof
Answersbecomeepisodes,and episodesbecomechapters.
theperiodare structured.
of whitenortherners
WendellPhillipshad said thattheunconcernand insensibility
should neverbe underestimated.
These factorsprincipalabolitionistsponsorskept
always beforethem.Slave storieswould have to be told,retold,and told again. To
thesecondeditionof his narrative(1846), Lewis Clarkeappendeda partiallistof the
movementhad beengrowasked. Whiletheantislavery
questionshe was incessantly
ing for nearlya generation,Lewis continuesto answerquestionsabout elemental
comealongand
blackhumanity:How do slavesspendtheSabbath?Whatifstrangers
see you at work?Why did you not learnto read? How manyslaves have you ever
knownthatcould read?Are familiesoftenseparated?Whatamountoffood do slaves
have? Whatis theclothingof a slave fora year?Don't slavesoftensay thattheylove
theirmastersverymuch?Don't slaves who run away returnsometimes?Do slaves
have conscientiousscruplesabout takingthingsfromtheirmasters?Do you thinkit
was rightforyou to runaway and not pay anythingforyourself?
Notablyabsentfromthislistand othersis any specialinquiryintoa slave'slifeafter
slavery.Clarke'spresenceon the abolitionistplatformof coursesuppliesa physical
answer,but hardlya conclusiveone. Yet antislaverylanguagedoes assumeabsorpas a formthatprovidesclosure.Comtion,a new life;in thenarrativeitis antislavery
pare thescenewithwhichDouglass closed his narrative,citedearlier,withthefinal
paragraphin WilliamWells Brown:
In theautumn,1843, impressedwiththeimportanceof spreadtruth,as a meansto bringabout theabolitionof
inganti-slavery
as an agentof thewesternNew
slavers,I commencedlecturing
YorkAnti-Slavery
Society,and have eversincedevotedmytime
to thecause of my enslavedcountrymen.22
and endingsofslaves'livesare thusinstitutionally
The beginnings
bound. Put another
is
in
the
a
double
to
a
slave
witness
sense:
way,
eyewitness
systemthatmustbe exand
abolitionist
and
witness
called
before
posed,
judges
jurorsto replyto specific
no
no
less.
white
Once
more,
sponsorscompela black authorto
again,
questions
to
white
institutional
authorize
power. The black messagewill be sealed
approve,
withina whiteenvelope.
502
CALLALOO
III
Words- so innocentand powerlessas theyare, as
standingin a dictionary,how potentforgood and evil
theybecome,in thehands of one who knowshow to
combinethem.
-Nathaniel Hawthorne
Let therebe, then,in theseUnitedStates,a Printing
Press,a copious supplyof type,a fulland complete
establishment,
whollycontrolledby coloredmen; let
thethinking
thecompositors,pressman,
writing-man,
printers'help,all, all be men of color;- thenlet there
a weeklyperiodicaland
come fromsaid establishment
a quarterlyperiodical,editedas well as printedby colored men;- let thisestablishment
be so well endowed
as to be beyondthechancesof temporary
patronage;
and thentherewill be a fixedfact,a rallyingpoint,
towardswhichthestrongand theweak amongstus
would look withconfidenceand hope; fromwhich
would flowa steadystreamof comfortand exhortation
to thewearystrugglers,
and burningrebukeand overwhelmingargumentupon thosewho dare impedeour way.
- Resolutionof NationalNegro Convention,1847
In thenarrativeof BritonHammon,bothslaveryand Hammon'suniqueresponses
to itare marginalto thestoryofcaptivityand religiousconversion.The publicationof
Hammon'snarrativeis also marginalto themainbusinessofAmericanprinting.
In the
of
narrativeofWilliamWellsBrowneighty-seven
the
yearslater, personalidentity the
formerslave is marginalto an exposureof slavery.His writtennarrativeis likewise
regardedat thetimeas no morethanan adjunctto hisprimaryworkas an antislavery
lecturer.The historyof theslave narrativerevealsa curiousmovementof centersand
formor experience.What
margins.Whatremainseverat thecenteris an institutional
is meanwhilepushedto theperiphery
is theuniqueand distinctive
experienceofan individuallife.
Likemedievalpainters,Freudhas taughtus to look to themarginsforthenuclear,
look to themargins
detail. FollowingFreud,structural
illuminating
anthropologists
formeaningand significance.23
In both instances,meaningis discoveredwhereit is
hidden,excluded,repressed,taboo. What is writtenoffis foundto be writtenfrom.
WhiteAmericans,it would seem,have longattemptedto cloak theraw experienceof
slavery,in the eighteenthcenturysubordinatingit to the language of triumphal
formostof thenineteenth
AmericanChristianity,
it intothelanguageof
transmuting
abolition.For theseventyyearsbetween1870 and 1940,even thisgenteeltransmutationwas too raw, too threatening.
Again thereis an apparentconstant.Whitesponsors of slave lives striveto see such lives whollywithinthehistoryof whiteinstitu503
CALLALOO
to editorsand readersalike. Most
tions,forsucha historyis safeand comprehensible
from1760to 1865seemto have believedthatall imwhitesponsorsofslavenarratives
whatwas done to him or
portantaspectsof a slave lifecould be toldby recounting
her. Whitepower overblack liveswas so great,so disproportionately
greatthatthe
- at mostre-actor.Undertheheadingof"SlaveNarrative,"
slave was recipient/victim
antislavery
periodicalsfrequently
portionsofWeld'sAmericanSlaveryAs It
reprinted
favoredwas thestoryof slaveholdersforsporttyingseverallargecats
Is; particularly
about theneck of a bound slave, thengoadingtheanimalsuntiltheyscratchedand
clawed the slave to death. This self-absorbedpsychologywas embodied in the
did notthinkbeyondwhiteinlanguageof abolitionas a whole. Becauseabolitionists
stitutional
categories,theycould not reasonwithoutreasoningfalsely.BeforereturnI shouldliketo identify
historyraisedby thenarratives,
ingto thequestionsofliterary
some of those largercategories.The reasoningtheyinducedcertainlyaffectedfar
more thanantebellumnarrativesand just as certainlylastedfarlongerthandid the
combatover emancipation.
crisisof the 1960s, The
In one of the mostvaluable studiesof the desegregation
the
Politicsof School Desegregation(1968), RobertL. Crain and othersinvestigated
had been made in fifteen
largeurbanschool
ways decisionsoverschooldesegregation
districts.
amongtheschoolboards: electedand apThey foundremarkablediversity
and corrupt,highlypoliticaland non-partisan,
pointed,unitedand divided,reformist
sympatheticto desegregationand adamantlyhostile.Yet on one major issue they
would be handledby white
foundstriking
agreement:theproblemsof desegregation
to
as "new
white
Some
board
members
thoughtof themselves
people talking
people.
of
but
for
black
none
showed
the
abolitionists,"
parentsor
opinions
any respect
to
critical
was
the
most
decision
arise
during
organizations.Althoughdesegregation
the tenureof any board, all chose to handlethedecisionin thesame way thatthey
selectednew textbooks-by appeasingall "powercenters."Because blacks did not
sucha center,theywereignored.Also ignoredin theprocesswerethegoals
represent
of integrated
educationand thedesiresof black studentsand parents.Desegregation
became an end in and of itself.
Littlehistoricalimaginationis requiredto realize thatmany importantdecisions
black Americanshave been made by whitepeople talkingto whitepeople.
affecting
Thereis morethana littlemordant,thoughunintended,
ironyin theallusionin 1965
to thegoals of abolition.For neitherGarrisonnor Phillipswas normallyconcerned
withblack goals. Garrisonsaid his ultimateintentionwas not to end slaverybut to
compel men to do theirduty,and Phillipsannouncedproudly,"If we neverfreea
to emancipateourbrotherman."24
slave,we have at leastfreedourselvesin theeffort
to freethemselves
had two consequences.On theone hand,evenbefore
Theirefforts
theytranslatedthegoal of abolitionto meanrepentanceby whiteAmericaforthesin
of slavery,theywere in essence ignoringblack demands-literary,economic,or
political.They would remainmoral purists:whitesaintsexhortingwhitesinnersto
give over whitesin. On theother,theirproslaveryopponentsdid on occasionforce
themdown fromtheempyreanof abstractideas intotheforumofpoliticsand power.
Here again theycould, with impunity,be antislaverywithoutbeing advocates of
black values. Because theywere nation-builders
forcedto articulate(at least nega504
CALLALOO
tively)a visionbeyondabolition,theytook seriouslythechargesthatantislavery
agitationwould unleashsocial anarchy.One slave insurrection
or one workers'riotwas
sufficient
proof,itwas alleged,thatlaborersmightrebelat any time.Becauseof such
most
abolitionistsworked tirelesslyto disassociatethemselvesfromsocial
charges,
and economicradicalism.
Proslaveryriotsof the early1830s convincedabolitionleadersto be prudent.In
1834 theexecutivecommitteeof theAmericanAnti-SlaverySocietyguaranteedthe
thepeomayorofNew YorkCitythatitsactivitieswould do nothingtoward"exciting
of
color
to
a
in
a
reiterated
1836
as
disclaimer
assume
airs,
etc.,"
ple
promise
against
"certainthingswhichare confoundedwithabolitionism;such as social intercourse,
amalgamation,etc."25Afteremancipationblacks would be as "kindand docile"as
to
they were now, for as a race theywere characterizedby "theirsusceptibility
control."The normalargumentis voiced by thesympathetic
abolitionistin Richard
Hildreth'sArchyMoore (1836).
It is payinga verypoor compliment,
indeed,to thecourageand
superiorityof us whites to doubt whetherwe, superiorin
numbersas in everythingelse, could not inspireawe enoughto
maintainournaturalpositionat thehead ofthecommunity,
and
to keep thesepoor people in orderwithoutmakingslaves of
them.26
While black abolitionistswere arguingthat the freedomsof all Americanswere
limitedso longas blackswererestrained,
theirwhitecounterparts
soughtto draw the
boundsoffreedomin smallercompass.Even themostardentof theGarrisonianswas
carefulto distinguish
betweenemancipationand socialequality.27
Theydistinguished,
between
and literaryequality.On a personallevel,
moreover,
literaryopportunity
whiteleadersat one timeor anothercriticized
virtuallyall blackwritersand lecturers.
If a black abolitionistseemedto covetstatusor possessionsor independence,
thenhe
was accused of self-interest
or treachery.The vehementdivisionbetweenDouglass
and Garrisonis well known,yettherewerecountlessothers.SamuelMay,Jr.,forinstance,wroteto a BritishfriendwhenWells Brownsailed forEngland:
He is a verygood fellow,ofveryfairabilities,and has beenquite
true to the cause. But he likes to make popular and taking
speeches,and keeps a carefuleye upon his own benefit.The
Anti-Slaverycause has been everythingto him, in point of
elevatingand educatinghim;and givinghima respectableposition,etc. He owes muchto it and he oughtto be trueto it.28
Brown at this timeconsideredMay a close friend.The latteradmitsno cause for
grievance,unlessitis theverysuccessof Brown'sspeeches- preciselywhattheabolitionistswishedfromhim.Yet May remainssuspiciouslestBrownforgetthathe owes
his "elevation,"his existenceto his whitesponsors.Some versionof this warning
precededmostblack abolitioniststravelingto Europe.
In retrospect,
of aboliMay's attitudetowardBrowncan be seen as characteristic
tionistambivalence.Over a generationwhiteantislaveryadvocateshad been forced
505
CALLALOO
to denythatabolitionwas a radicalthreat.Implicitly
by circumstance
theydeniedthat
freedmenmightpossess values different
fromtheirs;practicallythey denied that
freedmen
Justas theinterrogation
mightpossessa significant
degreeof independence.
techniquehad been intendedby earlyeditorsmerelyto resolvean immediate,practicalproblem,so too theirearlypoliticalcompromiseshad far-reaching
implications.
"'Give us thefacts... we willtakecareof thephilosophy .. .' The mechanicsof
clear. He was confronted
Douglass's dilemmaare sufficiently
by a batteryof white
questionsabout life under slaveryand by the mandatedformsunder which his
answerswould be subsumed.What remainsto be explainedis whywhitesponsors,
thefactsto be conveyed,feltobligedalso to supplytheirconcephavingdetermined
tual frame.We have alreadyseen theinfluenceof eighteenth-century
narratives.Yet
whenslaveryhad been movedto theforeground
ofdebate,whycannotformerslaves
withthephilosophyof theirown stories?
themselvesbe entrusted
The Americanpresstook textand comfortfromearlierBritishoppositionto the
slave trade. Quoted with regularity
were Wesley,Priestley,Blake, Bums, Wordsworth,Coleridge,Southey,Campbell,and especiallyCowper. Fromtheseand other
Britishliteraryfigures,Americansinheritedtwo alternativeimagesof the slave: the
noblesavageand thechildofwesterncivilization.The former
image- ofa peoplesensitiveand courageousin theirnativeland- was ofobviousvalue to proponentsofcolonization.Butit had littledirectappeal to mostAmericanabolitionists.For themthe
moreadvantageousmetaphorwas of a people who, throughno faultof theirown,
had remainedmiredin a rudestateofnatureand had notyetbegunthegeneralascent
of humankindtowardenlightenment.
Blacks were more than ready to profitfrom
westerneducation,accordingto Coleridge,because theywere"moreversatile,more
to
easily modified,thanperhapsany otherknownrace."29Malleability,receptivity
educationand controlwerenotionstheAmericanmovementfoundserviceableduring
the threedecades beforethe war. An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans
Called Africans(1836),by LydiaMaria Child,editorofHarrietJacobs'snarrativeand
authorof manyabolitionisttracts,carriedan epigraphfromColeridgeand dozensof
"toprovethatthepresentdegradedcondition
quotationsfromtheEnglishin an effort
of thatunfortunate
race is producedby artificial
causes, not by thelaws of nature"
(148). ChapterVI, "Intellectof Negroes,"is a survey-based upon principlesupon
which"naturalists
are universally
agreed"- ofblack culturefromtheancientworldto
thepresent.Black authorsare creditedwiththegiftsof thenaif;Equiano's Narrative
"is said to be writtenwith all the simplicity,and somethingof the roughness,of
uneducatednature"(160). Fromthiscondition,Mrs. Child deduces:
I am well aware thatmostof thenegroauthorsare remarkable
principallybecause theyare negroes.Withconsiderabletalent,
theygenerallyevincebad taste.I do not pretendthattheyare
Scottsor Miltons;butI wishto provethattheyare men,capable
of producingtheirproportionof Scotts and Miltons, if they
could be allowed to live in a stateof physicaland intellectual
freedom.Butwhere,at thepresenttime,can theylive in perfect
freedom,cheeredby the hopes and excitedby the rewards,
whichstimulatewhitemento exertion?Everyavenueto distinctionis closedto them.Evenwherethebodyis suffered
to be free,
506
CALLALOO
I thinkeverycandid
a hatefulprejudicekeepsthesoul in fetters.
mindmustadmitthatit is morewonderfultheyhave done so
much,thanthattheyhave done no more. (171)
Blacks will not produce Scotts and Miltons so long as theyremainthe ignorant
childrenof theWest:"A familyofchildrentreatedwithhabitualviolenceor contempt,
becomestupidand sluggish,and are calledfoolsby theveryparentsor guardianswho
have crushedtheirmentalenergies"(171).
Mrs. Child does not say whetherwhite America has produced its Scotts and
Miltons,but she is certainblackswillprosperto thedegreethattheyfollowthedirectionsofsympathetic
teacherslikeherself.At thispointshejoinshandswiththeeditors
of Hammon, Gronniosaw,White,and even Pomp. For childhood,in evolutionary
to thewhiteheads of thefamily.
terms,entailsa verylong periodof apprenticeship
of the1840swhen,in a serFreeman
the
definitive
Clarke
James
pronouncement
gave
mon, he extolledblack abilityto followthelead of theirbetters:
The coloredman has not so muchinventionas thewhite,but
moreimitation.He has not so muchof thereflective,
but more
of the perceptivepowers.... The blacks have not the indomitableperseveranceand will,whichmake theCaucasian, at
least the Saxon portionof it, masterswherevertheygo- .30
Like Clarke,MoncureConway withholdsas muchcreditas he dispenses.Becauseof
theirpoetic,fertileimaginations,
Conway wrote,black artistsare likelyafterslavery
to contribute
to thenation'sartand music,particularly
Africanelethrougha "fervid
ment,so child-like,
exuberant,and hopeful."As Emancipationapproached,Theodore
Tilton summarizedfor the AmericanAnti-SlaverySocietythe judgmentsof earlier
writersupon black abilities.ApprovingMrs. Child,Clarke,and Conway, he chose a
different
metaphorfor his conclusion:"The negrorace is the femininerace of the
world." 31
Fromthebeginning
of theabolitionist
relied
period,thesponsorsofslavenarratives
of slaveryto justifywhateverpositionwas at thatmoment
upon theputativeeffects
called for-from solicitudeto negligence,patronageto condescension.32
Current
black demandsand specificblack achievementsseem to have influencedthosepositionsnot at all. Phillips,Child, Clarke,Conway, and Tiltonwere among themost
acuteoftheabolitionists,
and theydirectedtheirstrictures
towardthemostprominent
of black spokesmen.Two thingsare clear. Whilearguingthatblack culturalexpression would in due coursejoin whiteexpressionin a nationalculture,theywere also
black aspirationswould needwhite
Further,
separatingit,settingit aside indefinitely.
even
in
after
even
guidance
emancipation,
generationsbornin freedom.
The assumptionof culturalhegemonypersisting
longafterthewar was encouraged
Louis
at
and
the
Harvard
most eminentnaturalscientistin
by
Agassiz, professor
America.Althoughnot an abolitionist,he was close to severalleadersof themovementand was the academic authorityto whom theyoftenturned.He was recommended to the Freedmen'sInquiryCommissionin 1863 when that body sought
His advice was of a piece withearlierwhite
testimonyon black enfranchisement.
doubts.
507
CALLALOO
I cannotthinkitjustor safeto grantat once to thenegroall the
privilegeswhichwe ourselveshave acquiredby long struggles.
. . . Letus bewareofgrantingtoo muchto thenegrorace in the
lestit becomenecessaryhereafter
to deprivethemof
beginning,
some of theprivilegeswhichtheymay use to theirown and our
detriment.33
On thesafetyof literary
hegemony,Garrisonis a consistent
proponent,afterthewar
as well as before.In privatecorrespondence
his termsofpraisefora whiteauthorare
and thelike.Whenhe describestheworkofa blackauthor,
"powerful,"
"magnificent,"
however, his recognitionis limitedto "useful,""agreeable,"or "makinga very
34His abidingquestionis, how will a whiteaudiencerespond?
favorableimpression."
For morethanthirty
arduousyearsGarrisonworkedat close hand withdozens of
fugitivesand freemen.Yet his voluminouscorrespondenceis as silentin personal
of his black assistantsas it is effusive
about his white.In his dealings
understanding
withDouglass and Brown,he requiredblack leadersto be strongenoughto control
theirfollowers,yetsufficiently
weak not to challengehim. In his correspondence
he
treatsblack writersas thoughtheyexistin some distinct,segregatedlimbo,hardlyin
touchwiththewhiteworld.On 30 July1868 he writesto Tiltonconcerning
a petition
proposedby Horace Greeley:
Mr. Greeleysuggestsgettingthenamesof "atleastfifty
leading,
to the desireddocument.In thepresent
life-longAbolitionists"
dividedstateof feeling,I doubtwhetherhalfthatnumbercould
be obtainedofthosewho arewellknownto thecountry.Neither
Phillips,nor Pillsbury,nor Foster,nor Whipple,nor any who
affiliate
withthem,would join in any suchmovement.Probably
GerritSmith, Samuel J. May, Samuel May, Jr., Samuel E.
Sewall, and EdmundQuincy would sign thepaper. Some colorednamesoughtto be added - suchas Douglass, Garnet,Nell,
Wells Brown,Langston,&c, &c. Perhapsthesehad bettersend
an appeal of theirown. Of course,Purvisand Remondwould
have nothingto do withthematter.35
similarto severalearlierones, thisletterseparateshis antislaverycolStructurally
leagues into whiteand black sentences,with the black names appended ("colored
namesoughtto be added") as an afterthought.
Whilemostwhitefigures
are identified
to as examples("suchas"), by last
by fullnames,even initials,theblacksare referred
namesonly,followedby a signthatGarrisonwillnottryto be exhaustive("etc,etc").
who, in the
By way ofexplanation,he continues:"Thereare so fewofthefreedmen
natureof things,can know anythingof theAbolitionists,
thatI am not quite sureit
would amountto much if any numberof names were appended to the paper prosentences,public or private,Garrisonever
posed." This is one of themoststartling
penned.The specificnatureof Greeley'spetitionis unknown;Garrison'seditorsguess
that it concernedamnestyor suffrage.In any case, Garrisonis referring
to black
leaders who have known him for more than a generation,who were antislavery
authors,lecturers,and international
They includemen who have
representatives.
beenspeakingand writingat lengthovermanyyearsaboutwhiteabolitionists
and the
508
CALLALOO
cause; Brownalone deliveredan estimated2,000 lectures.Theytoo calledthemselves
"nature
Abolitionists,
thoughnow he would withholdthetitle.Whatis themysterious
ofthings"thatallowsknowledgeto flowbutone way, to whitesbutnotto blacks?His
lamentmay be thatthe influenceof freedmen,even of thoseof Douglass's stature,
would not amountto much. Yet the ignorancehe findsmay be his own. His final
wordson thesubjectreflect
a familiargambit- usingthethreatofsouthernretaliation
to suppressblack voices: "Moreover,mightnot such names exasperatethe rebel
enemiesof thefreedmen,
and stimulatethemto theinfliction
of freshoutrages?It is
worthconsideringwhethera calm and simplestatementper se, as to what is the
Like
politicalduty of the freedmenin the comingstruggle,will not be sufficient."
In earlier
Agassiz,Garrisonseemspreoccupiedwiththepotentialfor"ourdetriment."
campaignsblackvoiceswereconsideredan essentialchorus;now theyare not. (Calm
and simplestatements
are the raisond'etreof the
per se, it should be remembered,
slave narrators.)What Garrisonprefersis an unequivocalannouncementof white
draftedby menlikehimself
to directfreedmen
to theirpolitical
hegemony:a statement
duty.Blacksarenotneededto framethelanguageofsucha statement,
merelyto fulfill
it. The dilemmafaced by Douglass and otherslave narratorsis clearer.Garrison
would have importantdecisionsmade by whitepeople talkingto whitepeople.
a distinctliterary
Does theslave narrativerepresent
genre?Certainly.It is a highly
mixedgenre,butno moreso thanothergenres.It possessesa demonstrable,
relatively
continuoushistory,as apparentto observersafter1800as itis to us today.Butitis not
an Afro-American
genre.
Is it a versionof autobiography?This is a problematicquestion,to whichmost
others are connected. To answer it, one must recall currentconceptions of
autobiography.Traditionalistsand post-structuralists
agree that autobiography
comes into being when recollectionengagesmemory.Recollectionengagespeople,
and unrelated;as an essentialpartof itsactivity,
things,eventsseemingly
fragmented
recollection
relation
to theenormousdiversity
of experience;
and/or
bringssequence
it plotsthestagesof thesubject'sjourneyto selfhood.Meaningemergeswhenevents
are connectedas partsof a coherentand comprehensive
whole. Meaning,relation,
and wholenessare but threefacetsof one characteristic:
a narrativeselfthatis morea
literalfact.The selfof autobiography
comesinto
literarycreationthana pre-existing,
in
the
of
not
This
the
with the
act
before.36
much
contrast
said,
being
writing,
antebellumslavenarrativeshouldbe apparent.FromAdam Negro'sTryallor theNarrativeofBritonHammonto theIncidentsofHarrietJacobsin 1861,thestatedpurpose
of theslave narrativeis fardifferent
fromthecreationof a self,and theoverarching
of
that
is
mandated
story
shape
by personsotherthanthesubject.Not blackrecollection, but whiteinterrogation
bringsorderto the narration.For eighteenth-century
narrativesthe self that emerges is a pre-existingform, derivinglargely from
Fortheabolitionist
evangelicalChristianity.
period,theselfis a typeoftheantislavery
witness.In each instancethemeaning,relation,and wholenessof thestoryare given
beforethe narrativebegins; theyare imposedratherthan chosen- what Douglass
calls "thefactswhichI feltalmosteverybodymustknow."
Withoutdescendingintootherwiseimportant
distinctions
between,say, Britishand
Americanversions,firstand latereditions,dictatedand subject-composed
narratives,
509
CALLALOO
thosesponsoredby abolitionistsand thosenot, one can offera tentativeconclusion.
WhenGeorgesGusdorfcalls eighteenth-century
"theodicies
of theinautobiographies
to Rousseau and Boswell,not to Marrantor Gronniosaw.37
dividual,"he is referring
So far are the latterfromworshippingselfhoodand individuality,
thesetraitsare
that
the
a
whole
is
defined
One
as
might
deliberately
suppressed.
say
genre
by a suppressionof thepersonalslave voice. For mostsponsors,by stipulation,definedthe
slave as primitive
and thenproceededto use thenarratives
to addressotherwhitepeople. Foucault'slanguageof Othernessapplies here. The voice of thenarrativesis a
whitevoice. ForMethodistsor abolitionists
to expresstheirdominance,theslavemust
remainsilent.In thissensetheintroductory
letterscan be seen as causal to thenarrativestheyprecede.The slave is theprimitive
otherwhosesilenceallowswhitesponsors to describethegrace,thebeautyof theirown civilizedvoices. Silence,thesuppressionof selfhood,is a necessaryconditionof beingin the slave narrative.The
separatelypublishednarrativesare thusnot a subspeciesof autobiography.
What are the distinguishing
characteristics
of the genre?It is, first,an AngloAmericanformin which the life storyof a presentor formerslave is relatedby
himself.Second, it is publishedwhen to do so would suit the purposesof a white
a lessonBookerT. Washingtonlearnedwell. And third,it is a
groupor institution,
formused by manywritersto subvertwhiteliterary
and institutional
values. Fullyto
it to say thatsucha case
arguethisthirdpointwould requirea separateessay. Suffice
has alreadybeen made in othertermsby severalcritics.38
The institutional
purposes
werepresentfrom1703and 1760 and continueduntil1865. Changesin thosepurposes
movement
broughtabout changesin emphasiswithinthegenre,withtheantislavery
the
in
the
shift
emphasis.Throughout period,however,the narprompting major
rativeremaineda popularliteraryform.By popularnarrativeI understanda vivid,
impellingstorypossessinga singlenessof motivein itscharactersand a singlenessof
foritsreaders.In thehandsof manyslave narrators,suchstraight-line
interpretation
storiesare richin texture,
fortheyofferin passingamplechanceforsocial criticism.39
Whatis at stakein thisanalysis?To theextentthatreadersremainalertto literary
of the historicalconditionsof the
kinds,periods,and influences,a comprehension
slave narrativewill remaindecisiveforan understanding
of Afro-American
writing.
At presentone can findstudiespraisingor blamingtheformfora bewildering,
even
of
for
for
formula
and
realism
incoherence,
contradictory,
variety qualities:
powerful
and drippingsentimentality,
for rich diversityand boringsameness,for intricate
and flatimitation,forinnovativeautobiographyand sterilemelodrama.
originality
Withoutdenyingthecontributions
ofsuchstudies,one can arguethattheyare largely
beside thepoint.They assumetoo much(or too little)about theelementalnatureof
thegenreand who possessedit. Forin Americanwritingtheslave narrativeis unique;
it resemblesotherforms,but otherformsdo not resembleit.
A new literary
thegenreas genrefromlaterAfro-American
historywilldisentangle
ofa distinct
writing.It willdisclosein detailthatthenarrativecontainsthebeginnings
tradition
butis notidenticalto suchbeginnings.
Itwillperform
thesamefunction
with
the chargeof culturalprimitivism.
The narrativeas a formand primitivism
as an
envelopingjudgmentwereinventedat thesame time,by thesamepeople,forsimilar
reasons.The inventionwas of lives.Lifestorieswerethepatentfortheinvention.In
510
CALLALOO
thewordsof thePrefaceto JohnMarrantin 1785: "The followingNarrativeis as plain
and artless,as it is surprising
and extraordinary.
Plausiblereasoningsmayamuseand
are
but
and
facts
like
these,strike, felt,and go hometo theheart."Ifthe
delight, facts,
lives of such personsas Hammon, Marrant,White,Brown,Henson, Jacobs,and
Northupareplain,artless,factual,and withoutplausiblereasonings,thenwhatof the
unnamedmass of black personsunder slavery?If the named and vocal have no
voices,whatis leftto theunnamed?Whatis moresilentthansilence?In literarycondescensionbeginsculturaldominanceand politicalhegemony.
A new literary
historywilljettisonthepreemptive
metaphorof theblack authoras
in
That
in
force
the
child.
was
literary
early
century,longbefore
metaphor
eighteenth
itsuse by Jefferson,
Tilton,
Price,Garrison,and Agassiz.
Coleridge,Child,Conway,
It serveditsuserslong,ifnotwell. Itspersistence
wereigexplainswhythenarratives
noredformorethanseventyyearsand perhapswhyitwas translatedintotheliterary
criticaljudgmentsof Moses Coit Tyler,VernonLoggins,RobertSpiller,and many
others.For a contemporary
example,CleanthBrooks,R. W. B. Lewis, and Robert
Penn Warren, three influentialcritics,in their influentialanthologyAmerican
Literature:
TheMakersand theMaking,relegatetheworkofDouglass and otherearly
Afro-Americanwritersto an appendage entitled"Literatureof the Nonliterary
World." Even for 1973 a great writerlike Douglass remainstoo primitiveto be
Whatis at stakeas a minimumin thisanalysisis thelife,thebeingofAfroliterary.40
Americanauthors.
A new literaryhistorywillrecognizethatthesilenceof theslave narrativewas partialand temporary,
of itstimeand not of ours.An Anglo-American
genremay claim
black authorsbut not black authority.Nevertheless,
a genreoverarching150 years
and 100 workscan be totalizing
withoutbeingtotal.Each narrativeis itselfa multiplylayerednetworkof relations,containingwithinthe networkvarietiesof diction,
and syntaxwhichitshareswithotherformsofdiscourse,and whichitorders
rhetoric,
for a particulareffect.Historicallythe narrativeas a formwas too large, too formidable to be colonized in its entirety.Futureliteraryhistorywill engage the
form- individuallyand collectively-on one or moreof thefollowinglevels. It will
firstread thenarrative"as is,"usingtraditional
methodsto illuminate
forexamplethe
nuancesof difference
in formbetweenwhite-and black-sponsored
stories(likethose
in the NorthStar), betweenreligiousand abolitionistgroupsand among thelatter,
betweenstoriesof the1840sand thoseof the1850s.Nextitwillattendmorecloselyto
recurrenttopoi that modifythe symbolicorder of the narrative.Folk elements,
and
plays upon names and naming,imagesof exile and confinement
superstitions,
defilement
all have theeffect
ofdisturbing
theconservative
formofthenarrativewithout displacingit. Many writerswereaware thattheywereretelling
in theirown lives
theChristianmythof thecrucifixion
withinthenationalcrisisofhumanslavery;they
were not humbledby the prospect.Finally,literaryhistorywill engage in radical
to hear thesilenceof thenarratives.It will attendto thegaps, theelisions,
strategies
thecontradictions,
and especiallytheviolations.It will turnoriginalpurposeson an
transform
angle,
objectsinto subjects,and abolish the abolitionists.The slave narratorswerefeelingtheirway throughstrangefieldsin thedark,Arna Bontempsonce
wrote.When theyfoundlightor a breakin thefences,theyran on. Abolitionistnar-
511
CALLALOO
ratives,forone largeinstance,are critiquesofcertainaspectsofAmerica.A subgroup
of those,in turn,are critiquesof critiques.Futurestudieswill findbetterways to
distinguishmessage from envelope and will give more prominentplace to the
"fraudulent"
narratives,like thoseof CharlesBall and JamesWilliams,thatinventas
well as imitateand criticize.
New literaryhistorywill not minimizetheculturalloss inherentin thecreationof
theslave narratives.Nor willit denytheculturalgain. Authority
was indeedlost,yet
the
and itsheirsare
In
moral
terms
slave
narrative
was
authenticity certainlygained.
theonlyhistoryofAmericanslaverywe have. Outsidethenarrative,slaveryforblack
Americanswas a wordless,nameless,timelesstime.It was timewithouthistoryand
time withoutimminence.Existencewas reduced largely to the duration of the
psychologicalpresent.Or at least,accordingto PeterWalker,thiswas theonlysense
of timeslaveholderswould tolerate.Forslaveholderstheonlyreliabletextsweretheir
fromtheirown memories.41
Whateverelse
own records;theonlyvalid recollection,
maybe said aboutit,theslavenarrativechangedthatforever.Itgave somemeansand
in a lifeofflux,and in thissenseto recallone'shistoryis to renewit.
measureof fixity
The slavenarrativeas written
lifestoryencourageda recollection
thatcouldbe tested,
could thenbe unitedwithotherlifestoriesto
corrected,
replenished.Suchrecollection
forma history,a timebeyondpersonalmemory,a timebeyondslaveholders'power.
The narrativeis both instrument
and inscriptionof a collectivememory.In 1849
Penningtonput thecase in an apologyforhis narrative:
Whatevermay be theill or favoredconditionof theslave in the
it is thechattelrelationthat
matterof merepersonaltreatment,
robshimofhismanhood,and transfers
hisownershipin himself
to another.... It is thisthatthrowshisfamilyhistoryintoutter
confusion,and leaves himwithouta singlerecordto whichhe
may appeal in vindicationof his character,or honor.And has a
man no senseof honorbecause he was borna slave? Has he no
need of character?Suppose insult,reproach,or slander,should
renderit necessaryforhimto appeal to thehistoryof hisfamily
in vindicationof his character,wheredoes he findthathistory?
He goes to his nativestate,to his nativecounty,to his native
town; but nowheredoes he findany record of himselfas a
man.42
Nameless,merelynumbered,in theirnative land, Penningtonand his familyfind
honor as well as beingin thepages of The FugitiveBlacksmith.For him and forus
thosepages are no smallgift.
Notes
1. Phillips'sviews may be sampled in AmericanNegro Slavery (1918) and Lifeand Labor in the Old
South (1929). His influenceis estimatedin RichardHofstadter,"U. B. Phillipsand the Plantation
Legend,"Journalof Negro History29 (April 1944): 109-24. OverarchingPhillips'sspecificstudies
was a general"scholarly"dismissalof black contributions
to American
(and potentialcontributions)
history.See F. L. Hoffman,Race Traitsand Tendenciesof theAmericanNegro (1896); WilliamA.
Politicaland Economic(1907); H. Paul Douglas, ChristianReconstruction
Dunning,Reconstruction:
512
CALLALOO
in the South (1909); Howard W. Odum, Social and Mental Traitsof the Negro (1910); Wallace
on Educationin theSouth (1913); David StarrJordan,War's
Knight,TheInfluenceofReconstruction
Aftermath:A PreliminaryStudy of the Eugenicsof War (1914); and C. C. Brigham,A Study of
AmericanIntelligence(1923).
2. Among DuBois's many relevantpublicationsare Black Reconstructionin America (1935) and The
Souls of Black Folk (1903). For Woodson, see The Educationof theNegroPriorto 1861 (1915), The
Negro in Our History(1922), and The Mis-Educationof the Negro (1933); he was of course the
founderof The Journalof Negro History.For Johnson,see especiallyShadow of the Plantation
(1934).
3. JohnW. Blassingamesurveysthetypesofnarrativesand theargumentsforauthenticity
in The Slave
Community:PlantationLifein theAntebellumSouth (rev.ed., New York: OxfordUP, 1979) and his
Introduction to Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and
Autobiographies(Baton Rouge: Louisiana StateUP, 1977). For a fullerview of thedebate,see John
B. Cade, "Out of theMouths of Ex-Slaves,"Journalof Negro History20 (July1935): 294-337; BenLibraryof CongressQuarterlyJournalof CurjaminA. Botkin,"The Slave as His Own Interpreter,"
rentAcquisitions2 (November1944): 37-63; Norman R. Yetman, "The Backgroundof the Slave
NarrativeCollection,"American Quarterly19 (1967): 534-53; William W. Nichols, "Slave Narratives:DismissedEvidencein theWritingof SouthernHistory,"Phylon32 (Winter1971): 403-09;
C. Vann Woodward, "HistoryfromSlave Sources,"AmericanHistoricalReview 79 (April 1974):
470-81; Blassingame,"Using the Testimonyof Ex-Slaves: Approaches and Problems,"Journalof
SouthernHistory41 (November 1975): 473-92; Randall M. Miller, "When Lions WriteHistory:
Slave Testimonyand theHistoryof AmericanSlavery,"ResearchStudies44 (March 1976): 13-23;
and David Thomas Bailey,"A Divided Prism:Two Sourcesof Black Testimonyon Slavery,"Journal
ofSouthernHistory46 (August1980): 381-404. To see how moderneditorshave judgedand used the
narratives,see the Introductionsin GilbertOsofsky, ed., Puttin' on Ole Massa (1969); Arna
Bontemps,ed., GreatSlave Narratives(1969); Bokin,ed., Lay My BurdenDown: A Folk Historyof
Slavery(1945); Yetman,ed., VoicesfromSlavery(1970); and GeorgeP. Rawick,FromSundownto
volume to thenineSunup: The Making of theBlack Community(1972), whichis theintroductory
teenvolumesof WPA and Fisk narratives.
4. Houston A. Baker,Jr.,The JourneyBack: Issues in Black Literatureand Criticism(Chicago: U of
Chicago P, 1980) 30-31.
5. Martha K. Cobb, "The Slave Narrativeand the Black LiteraryTradition,"The Art of Slave Narrative,ed. JohnSekora and Darwin T. Turner(Macomb, IL: Essays in LiteratureBooks, 1982) 38.
6. For thedesireof ownersto controlthefabricofslave life,see A. Leon Higginbotham,
Jr.,In theMatterof Color: Race and theAmericanLegal Process- The Colonial Period (New York: OxfordUP,
titlesare mentionedin at leastseventeennarratives,spies sentintothe
1978). Owners'self-conferred
fieldsin at least eleven.
7. See MarionWilsonStarling,The Slave Narrative:Its Place inAmericanHistory(Boston:G. K. Hall,
1981) 50-52. The Tryall was published in Publications of the Colonial Society: Transactions,
1892-1894, 103-12.
8. WilliamL. Andrews,"The FirstFiftyYears of theSlave Narrative,1760-1810,"TheArtofSlave Narrative,ed. Sekora and Turner,19-22. I am much indebtedto Andrews'sexcellentessay. See also
David Minter,"Conceptsof theSelfin Black Slave Narratives,"AmericanTranscendental
Quarterly
24 (1974): 62-68.
9. See RichardSlotkin,"Narrativesof Negro Crimein New England,1675-1800,"AmericanQuarterly
25 (March 1973): 3-31; and Andrews,"FirstFiftyYears," 7, 10-11.
10. Andrews,18.
11. FrederickDouglass, Narrativeof theLifeofFrederickDouglass, An AmericanSlave, ed. HoustonA.
Baker,Jr.(1845; rpt.New York: Penguin,1982) 151.
12. For the followingdiscussion,I have drawn upon Alice D. Adams, The NeglectedPeriod of AntiSlaveryin America,1808-1831 (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1908); WilliamH. Pease and JaneH. Pease,
They Who Would Be Free: Blacks' Search forFreedom,1830-1861 (New York: Atheneum,1974);
Martin Duberman, ed., The Anti-SlaveryVanguard (Princeton:PrincetonUP, 1965); Benjamin
Quarles, The BlackAbolitionists(New York: OxfordUP, 1969); AileenKraditor,Means and Ends in
AmericanAbolition:Garrisonand His Criticson Strategyand Tactics,1830-1844(New York: Pantheon,1969); and Louis Filler,The CrusadeAgainstSlavery1830-1860 (New York: Harper,1960).
Among manyvaluable articles,see LarryGara, "The ProfessionalFugitivein theAbolitionMovement,"WisconsinMagazine of History48:3 (Spring1965): 196-204. A usefuldissertationis Robert
C. Dick, "Rhetoricof theAnte-BellumProtestMovement"(Stanford,1969).
13. For convenientlistings,see JohnW. Blassingameand Mae G. Henderson,AntislaveryNewspapers
513
CALLALOO
and Periodicals1817-1854,3 vols. (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1980-81); and GeorgeE. Carterand C. Peter
Ripley,Black AbolitionistPapers (Sanford,NC: MicrofilmCorporationof America,1981).
14. C. Duncan Rice, The Rise and Fall of Black Slavery(New York: Harper and Row, 1975), 313.
15. JohnA. Collins to Garrison,quoted in the Liberator,21 January1842.
16. Chicago WesternCitizenforDecember1847: quoted by Gara, "ProfessionalFugitive,"201.
17. AngelinaGrimketo Theodore Weld, 21 January1838: quoted by Gara, 197. Grimketoo uses the
singular"tale."
18. Quoted by PhilipS. Foner,The Lifeand Writings
ofFrederickDouglass, 5 vols. (New York: InternationalPublishers,1950, 1975): I, 55.
19. ChristianExaminer47 (July1849): 64.
20. Quoted by Starling,107.
21. See BenjaminA. Botkin,"The Slave as His Own Interpreter,"
esp. 38-43. To draw thecontrastbetweenpro- and antislaverynarratives,see thememoirsof Isaac Jefferson
dictatedto CharlesCampbell in the 1840s and publishedin 1951 as Memoirsof a MonticelloSlave, ed. BenjaminQuarles.
22. The Narrativeof WilliamWellsBrown,a FugitiveSlave, ed. LarryGara (1847; rpt.Reading,MA:
Addison-Wesley,1969) 49.
23. For instance,EdmundLeach, Cultureand Communication:The Logic by WhichSymbolsAre Connected(Cambridge,Eng.: CambridgeUP, 1976).
24. Quoted by Pease and Pease, TheyWho Would Be Free,11. For discussionof abolitionistattitudes,I
have drawnupon severalbiographicalstudies:JohnL. Thomas, The Liberator:WilliamLloyd Garrison(Boston: Little,Brown,1963); Russel B. Nye, WilliamLloyd Garrisonand the Humanitarian
Reformers(Boston: Little,Brown, 1955); BettyFladeland, JamesGillespieBirney:Slaveholderto
Abolitionist (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1955); Ralph V. Harlow, Gerrit Smith, Philanthropistand
Reformer(New York: Holt, 1939); BenjaminThomas, TheodoreWeld, CrusaderforFreedom(New
Brunswick:RutgersUP, 1950); Irving H. Bartlett,Wendell Phillips, BrahminRadical (Boston:
Beacon Press, 1961); and FrankP. Stearns,The Lifeand Public Servicesof George LutherStearns
(Philadelphia:Lippincott,1907). Worksnecessaryto evaluate theabolitionistlegacyare LarryGara,
The LibertyLine (Lexington:U of KentuckyP, 1961); GeorgeM. Frederickson,The Black Image in
the WhiteMind (New York: Harperand Row, 1971); Leon F. Litwack,"The AbolitionistDilemma:
The AntislaveryMovementand theNorthernNegro,"New EnglandQuarterly34 (1961): 50-73; Litwack, North of Slavery (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1961); Pease and Pease, "AntislaveryAmbivalence,"AmericanQuarterly17 (1965): 682-95, and "Boston Garrisoniansand the Problemof
FrederickDouglass," Canadian Journalof History2 (September1967): 27-48; and especiallyJames
M. McPherson,The AbolitionistLegacy (Princeton:PrincetonUP, 1964).
25. Quoted by Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free,607.
26. RichardHildreth,ArchyMoore (1836; rpt. New York, 1856) 264.
27. See Douglass's editorialon the subjectin Douglass's MonthlyforOctober 1860. Significant
studies
are Pease and Pease, "AntislaveryAmbivalence,"esp. 684; and Frederickson,The Black Image, 40
and passim.
28. May to JosephEstlin,21 May 1849: quoted in Gara, "ProfessionalFugitive,"203. For Douglass, see
Quarles, "The Break BetweenDouglass and Garrison,"Journalof Negro History23 (April 1938):
144-54; and Douglass's letterto Maria WestonChapman, 29 March 1846, in FonerI, 142-44.
29. Coleridgeand otherfiguresare quoted in RichardM. Kain, "The Problemof Civilizationin English
AbolitionistLiterature,1772-1808,"PQ 15 (April 1936): 103-25. For further
backgroundsee Wole
and theAfricanWorld(Cambridge:CambridgeUP, 1976);
Soyinka'sPrefaceto hisMyth,Literature,
and Charles H. Long, "Primitive/Civilized:The Locus of a Problem,"History of Religions20
(Augustand November1980); 43-61.
30. JamesFreemanClarke,Slaveryin theUnitedStates:A SermonDeliveredon Thanksgiving
Day 1842
(Boston 1843) 24. For later statementsof the principle,see Child, The RightWay The Safe Way
(1860), and Lewis Tappan, ImmediateEmancipation:The Only Wise and Safe Mode (1861). For a
gloss on thedebate,see JamesM. McPherson,The StruggleforEquality:Abolitionistsand theNegro
in the Civil War and Reconstruction
(Princeton:PrincetonUP, 1964), esp. 134-53.
31. Conway writesin theBoston Commonwealthfor18 October 1862; Tilton'saddresswas
published
laterin 1863 as The Negro. Both are quoted by McPherson,144-45.
32. Litwack,"The Abolitionists'Dilemma,"esp. 61-65.
33. LetterfromAgassiz to Samuel GridleyHowe 10 August1863: quoted by McPherson,146.
34. See, e.g., his letterto ElizabethPease 20 June1849 in The Lettersof WilliamLloyd Garrison,ed.
WalterM. Merrilland Louis Ruchames,6 vols. (Cambridge:Belknapof Harvard UP, 1971-81): III
626, 637.
514
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35. Letters,ed. Merrilland Ruchames,VI 77-78. JamesOlney makes excellentuse of Garrison'sprefatorylettersto thenarrativesin a forthcoming
essay, "I Was Born."
36. To selecta rangeof examples,see JamesOlney's Introductionto Autobiography:Essays Theoretical
and Critical(Princeton:PrincetonUP, 1980) 3-27; StephenCrites,"The NarrativeQuality of Experience,"Journalof theAmericanAcademyofReligion(1971): 291-311; and GerardGenette,"Time
and Narrativein A la recherchedu tempsperdu,"Aspects of Narrative,ed. J. Hillis Miller (New
York: Columbia UP, 1971) 93-118.
37. See Gusdorf'sessay, "Conditionsand Limitsof Autobiography,"
Autobiography,ed. Olney, 28-48.
38. To give a verypartiallisting:Baker,The Journey
Back, and his essay on Equiano in theforthcoming
Blues, Ideology,and Afro-American
Literature;RobertB. Stepto,FromBehindtheVeil: A Studyof
Narrative(Urbana: U of IllinoisP, 1979) 3-31; and fouressays in The Art of Slave
Afro-American
Narrative,ed. Sekora and Turner:RaymondHedin, "Strategiesof Formin theAmericanSlave Narrative,"25-35; LucindaH. MacKethan,"MetaphorsofMasteryin theSlave Narratives,"55-69; Keith
Byerman,"We Wear theMask: Deceit as Themeand Stylein Slave Narratives,"70-82; and Annette
Niemtzow, "The Problematicof Self in Autobiography:The Example of the Slave Narrative,"
96-109. See also SterlingA. Brown,"The Negro Authorand His Publisher,"QuarterlyReview of
HigherEducationAmong Negroes 9 (July1941): 140-46; and Zora Neale Hurston,"What White
PublishersWon't Print."Negro Digest 6:6 (April 1950): 85-89.
39. I draw here fromunpublishedexcerptsfromthe forthcoming
studyby Ralph Cohen of elite and
popularformsin eighteenth-century
England.See also PeterBurke,Popular CultureinEarlyModern
Europe (New York: New York UP, 1978) 58-63; and Ronald Paulson, Popular and PoliteArt in the
Age of Hogarthand Fielding(NotreDame: U of NotreDame P, 1979) 24-48.
40. I am indebtedto Houston Bakerforthisreference.To suggesttheshortdistancebetweeneditorsof
narratives,one could citethepreface
anthologiesand editorsofnineteenth-century
twentieth-century
to theLifeand Sufferings
of LeonardBlack,A FugitivefromSlavery(1847). Because of Black's"deficiencyof education,"an editorwas needed forthebook, "to fitit forthepress."The editordevoted
"himselfmostlyto punctuation,correctingthe orthography,strikingout unnecessarywords and
sentences,etc., etc." The criticas brokerbetweeneditorsis aptly representedby VernonLoggins,
whose The NegroAuthor(Columbia UP, 1931) is one ofveryfewearlierliterarystudiesto noticethe
narratives.While one commendsthestudyforitsattention,one mustnoticeits terms.Of Marrant's
narrative:"thereis in the account a childlikeinstinctforsensingthe marvelousand the wonderful
whichsuggestsstronglytheprimitiveNegro imagination"(32). In Equiano thereis "simplicity
and
and "theNegro's mysticism,
his unquestioningacceptanceof thestrange"(46, 43). The
artlessness,"
narratorsare praisedas a groupfortheir"homely"or "homespunsentences";WilliamWhipperis successfulbecause the"styleis simple"(70); WilliamBoen is faithful
because of the"homelinessof the
idiom" (95-96). Moses Roper is approved for his "homelyEnglish"(103). Douglass is approved
because his style"is childlikein its simplicity"(141). Wells Brown's style"is all the more telling
because of itssimplicity"
around
(161). Wheneditorsand criticshave drawnthecircleofprimitivism
Afro-American
expression,all thatremainsis a totalizingconclusionby a social scientist.The followingis thejudgmentof CharlesW. Dabney, formanyyearsdirectorof theSouthernEducationBoard,
in his two-volumeUniversalEducationin the South (U of NorthCarolina P, 1936):
The firstNegroeswere broughtout of Africansavageryand sold as slaves to
thestruggling
of Europioneersin Virginia.Theirmasterswererepresentatives
pean civilization,thehighestin theworld at thattime,while theNegroesas a
whole belongedto a low orderof savagery.The slaves fromAfricawere thus
introducedinto a state of law and order,of homes, of communitylife,and
cooperativelivinginsteadof thewild lifeof thejungles. . . . Undoubtedlythey
were dealt a measure of injusticeand cruelty,but in comparisonwith the
Africanlifefromwhichtheyhad justcome, Virginiawas a land of goldenopportunityfor the poor people, at least fromthe point of view of acquiring
civilization.... In the historyof theworld thereneverwas a savage people
civilized,trained,and partiallyeducated as rapidlyas thispeople was in the
space of two hundredyears. (I, 433)
41. PeterF. Walker,Moral Choices: Memory,Desire,and Imaginationin Nineteenth-Century
American
Abolition (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1978) 230.
42. Bontemps,Great Slave Narratives,201.
515