Robert A. Gibson
There will be three nineteenth-century slave narratives assigned to be read by students for class discussion: Frederick Douglass’ Narrative
of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
(1845), Solomon Northup’s
Twelve Years a Slave
;
Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853 from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana
(1853) and Linda Brent’s
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
(1861). Added to this reading will be selected narratives from a collection of WPA slave narratives edited by Norman R. Yetman entitled
Voices From Slavery
.
There are several reasons for the selection of these three nineteenth-century narratives and the inclusion of selected WPA slave narratives in this study. They are in print in paperback or hardback editions and, therefore, are readily available for classroom use. Douglass’ and Northup’s narratives are considered classics of the genre. They are well-written. Both narrators were shrewd observers of people and events. Both detail the daily routine and life of the slaves.
However the major reason for choosing these three antebellum narratives, as well as the selected WPA slave narratives, is to allow the students to view slavery from four distinctly different perspectives. Frederick Douglass describes the experiences of a black man who was born a slave and later escaped to the North. Solomon Northup’s story is rather unique. All other slave narrators had been born into slavery. Northup was born a free man and was kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of thirty-three. Linda Brent’s story is also quite unique because she describes slavery from the viewpoint of a black woman—a rarity among the hundreds of slave narratives published before 1865. The WPA slave narratives give a wide range of descriptions of experiences and expressions of slave life and thought from those who were children as well as adults, from female as well as male slaves. Because of the large number of slave interviews in the Slave Narrative Collection, the lives of “average” slaves—a group portrait—can best be drawn from these narratives. An outstanding feature of the WPA narratives is that they are descriptions of slavery given by those who neither fled to the North nor were set free by their masters, but those who remained slaves until the events of the Civil War and ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment set them free. Also, because the former slaves were interviewed by the Federal Writers seven decades after Emancipation, there is an absence of any abolitionist influence or propaganda.
However, there are other difficulties in using the WPA slave narratives such as white southern interviewers. In an era of segregation and extreme racial oppression in the South, many elderly blacks may have been intimidated by white interviewers, which may have caused some to be less than candid in their recollections of slavery. Only one-fifth of the WPA slave narratives were recorded by black interviewers. One study comparing the interviews conducted by black and white writers concludes that the former slaves were much more open about their feelings and experiences as slaves with the black interviewers (see Paul Escott’s
Slavery Remembered
).
In this part of their assignment, students will be asked to detect any differences in the various views of slavery presented in the assigned sources as well as any differences in the treatment of slaves. Students will also look for regional variations in the slave experience. Students will study the narrators’ choice of words and stories in order to discover the range of responses toward slavery. This unit has been designed to get inside the slave experience as much as possible in order to convey the mood as well as offer an analysis of American slave life primarily from the personal narratives of the slaves.
Lesson Plan Outline
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I. The first two or three days of lessons for this unit will be an introduction covering the background of the nineteenth century and WPA slave narratives.
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1. Students will understand why the narratives were written.
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2. Students will know who wrote the narratives.
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3. Students will understand the impact of the slave narratives on antebellum American society.
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4. Students will assess the general reliability of the narratives.
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5. Students will understand the importance of the WPA narratives.
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6. Students will understand special problems in working with the WPA narratives, such as the hazy memories of the former slaves interviewed and the use of white southern interviewers.
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II. The next week to ten days will be used to discuss the assigned readings and the experiences of the slaves in the United States as portrayed in those readings.
Topics of discussion will include:
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1. The Slave Character
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2. The Slave and the Master: Interpersonal Relationships
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3. Experience of the Black Family under Slavery (see Gutman’s
The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom)
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4. Living and Working Conditions on the Plantation
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5. Slave Punishment
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6. Flight, Resistance, and Survival Techniques Among Slaves
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7. Slave Music and Religion (see works by Levine and Blassingame)
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8. Hierarchy of the Plantation
Classroom Activities and Projects
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1. Role playing: Student written plays based on incidents described in the assigned slave narratives.
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Suggested topics:
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a. Master and Slave Dialogue.
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b. Conversation among a group of slaves in their cabin after a day’s work.
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c. Discussion of a slave husband and his wife after being told by their master one of their children must be sold.
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2. Arrange a mock slave auction based on descriptions of an auction in Solomon Northup’s narrative. Students will play the various roles: auctioneer, male and female slaves, child slaves, and slave buyers. This activity will help students in the class to visualize the anxiety and dehumanizing effect of being sold on the auction block.
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3. Creative writing assignment. Students will choose one of the following:
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a. Imagine you were a fugitive slave living in Connecticut in the 1840s. Write a narrative of your experiences as a slave in the South and your method of escape.
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b. Write a detailed account of one day in the life of a slave on a southern plantation in the 1850s.
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4. Critical analysis of a nineteenth century slave narrative. Students will select a narrative not already assigned, read and then write a 5-7 page critical analysis of the book.
