Black narratives of slavery : a very short introduction / Robert J. Patterson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Patterson, Robert J. (Robert John), author.

Series:

Very short introductions ; 799.

Very short introductions ; 799

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slave narratives--United States.

Slave narratives.

Enslaved persons' writings, American.

Enslaved persons--United States--Biography.

Enslaved persons.

African Americans--Social conditions--19th century.

African Americans.

Slavery--United States--History--19th century.

Slavery.

African American authors.

African Americans--Social conditions.

Slavery in literature.

Slavery in motion pictures.

Genre:

Slave narratives.

Physical Description:

xxii, 149 pages : illustrations ; 18 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

This Very Short Introduction brings together a wide range of narratives of slavery across a broad historical period to understand how Black people -- enslaved and not-enslaved -- have experienced and imagined slavery. It also investigates how slavery's long reach and afterlife has continued to shape Black life in the twenty-first century. By giving attention to the narratives produced during the last two hundred plus years, this volume examines American chattel slavery as a specific historical period that legally ended in 1865, and yet recognizes its impacts, effects, and significance as extending into the twenty-first century. Slave narratives tie the life of slavery its abolition with its afterlife and the reconfigurations that followed -- Black Codes, Jim Crow segregation, and many other forms of disenfranchisement. Robert J. Patterson examines so-called "traditional" slave narratives alongside writings from non-enslaved Black people in the nineteenth century, the imaginative works of twentieth century fiction, and twenty-first century cinema to create a compelling and informative introduction to the long historical arc of slavery woven into the cultural and political fabric of America.

Contents:

Back Narratives of Slavery and Black Cultural Production

Autobiographical Narratives of Slavery

Not Written by Themselves: Oral Yet Recorded Narratives of Slavery

Slavery Remade: Jim Crow Narratives of Slavery

Freedoms on their Minds: Post-Civil Rights Narratives of Slavery

Black Interiority Visualized: Cinematic Narratives of Slavery

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780197678374

0197678378

OCLC:

1542999704

Publisher Number:

CIPO000385227