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slave narrative
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Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano's autobiography
How the Whitney Plantation teaches the history of slavery
Fugitive Slave Acts cartoon Color illustration from Uncle Tom's Cabin showing a slave auction scene, with a group of enslaved people on a platform and a trader examining a man for sale in front of a crowd. Elizabeth Keckley
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slave narrative summary
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Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano, from the frontispiece of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789).

slave narrative

American literature
Written by
William L. Andrews
E. Maynard Adams Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Co-editor of The Norton Anthology of African American Literature and The Oxford Companion to African American...
William L. Andrews
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

slave narrative, an account of the life, or a major portion of the life, of a fugitive or former slave, either written or orally related by the slave personally. Slave narratives comprise one of the most influential traditions in American literature, shaping the form and themes of some of the most celebrated and controversial writing, both in fiction and in autobiography, in the history of the United States. The vast majority of American slave narratives...

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