Born a Slave: Anthology

This collection includes over 100 slave narratives and more than a thousands transcripts of recorded interviews made with former salves in the first half of 20th century:



Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave

Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave

The History of Mary Prince

The Blind African Slave (Boyrereau Brinch)

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

The Life and Adventures of Zamba, an African King (Zamba Zembola)

A Narrative of Some Remarkable Incidents in the Life of Solomon Bayley

Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom (William and Ellen Craft)

Behind The Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave & Four Years in the White House (Elizabeth Keckley)

Father Henson's Story of His Own Life (Josiah Henson)

Fifty Years in Chains; or, the Life of an American Slave (Charles Ball)

Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper

Narrative of Henry Watson - A Fugitive Slave

Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the Life Sufferingsand Escape of John Brown

The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman, a Narrative of Real Life

The Experience of a Slave in South Carolina (John Andrew Jackson)

The Willie Lynch Letter: The Making of Slave! (Willie Lynch)

A Slave Girl's Story (Kate Drumgoold)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

My Bondage and My Freedom

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Harriet Jacobs)

Harriet: The Moses of Her People

Booker T. Washington:

Up From Slavery

The Story of My Life and Work

The Story of Slavery

12 Years a Slave (Solomon Northup)

The Confessions of Nat Turner (Nat Turner)

Thirty Years a Slave: From Bondage to Freedom (Louis Hughes)

Narrative of the Life of J. D. Green, a Runaway Slave

Twenty-Two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman (Austin Steward)

Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, Written by Himself (Henry Bibb)

The Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave

The Story of Mattie J. Jackson (L. S. Thompson)

The Fugitive Blacksmith (James W. C. Pennington)

From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or Struggles for Freedom (Lucy A. Delaney)

Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy, a Slave in the United States of America

The Life and Sufferings of Leonard Black, a Fugitive from Slavery

Narrative of Joanna; An Emancipated Slave, of Surinam (John Gabriel Stedman)

Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Who Escaped in a 3x2 Feet Box, Written by Himself

Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley (Margaretta Matilda Odell)

Buried Alive (Behind Prison Walls) For a Quarter of a Century. Life of William Walker (Thomas S. Gaines)

Autobiography of James L. Smith

Sketches of the Life of Joseph Mountain, a Negro

The Kidnapped and the Ransomed (Peter Still)

Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed (Emma and Lloyd Ray)

Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days (Annie L. Burton)

Aunt Dice: The Story of a Faithful Slave

The Autobiography of Nicholas Said

Life of George Henry

Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of Charles Ball

Josiah: The Maimed Fugitive

Bond and Free (Israel Campbell)

Narrative of the Sufferings of Lewis Clarke

My Slave Life – In Virginia and Kentucky (Francis Fedric)

Buried Alive: Behind Prison Walls For a Quarter of a Century (William Walker)

Sunshine and Shadow of Slave Life (Isaac D. Williams)

A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture Smith

The Life History and Unparalleled Sufferings of John Jea

A Narrative of the Life and Laborsof the Rev. Greensbury Washington Offley

Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper

The Life of John Thompson, a Fugitive Slave

From Slavery to Wealth: The Life of Scott Bond

Out of the Ditch: A True Story of an Ex-Slave (Joseph Vance Lewis)



Testimonies, Letters & True Life Stories:

The Underground Railroad (William Still)

The House of Bondage (Octavia Albert)



INTERVIEWS