North Carolina Slave Narratives

“For those who want to get some idea of what slavery in the South was like before the Civil War, this is the book. . . . Insights are everything . . . and this book abounds in them. . . . A compelling and hugely informative view of a time and an ethos that we can never forget.”—Kliatt

“From [the four narratives], students of North Carolina history can discover much about the diversity of slaves' experiences in the state, especially as related to literacy, manhood, masters, resistance, sympathizers, family, work, and religion.”—Journal of Southern History

“A fascinating collection of narratives.”—Forecast

“For those who want to get some idea of what slavery in the South was like before the Civil War, this is the book. . . . a compelling and hugely informative view of a time and an ethos that we can never forget.”—Kliatt

“William Andrews, through his masterful study To Tell a Free Story and as editor of several editions of the slave narratives, has established himself as our leading commentator on the literary worlds that the African American slaves made. Like his previous editions, North Carolina Slave Narratives is a major contribution to our understanding of the nature and function of this most curious genre of literature. Carefully and painstakingly edited, North Carolina Slave Narratives is essential reading for all scholars and students of African American literature and history in the nineteenth century.”—Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard University

“Maritime slavery and plantation life, the surprising possibilities of urban bondage and the excruciating realities of sale and exile, all come through in these carefully introduced and well-chosen narratives. These four North Carolina autobiographers wonderfully enrich and enlarge the story of bondsmen and their struggles in America, casting light in new and hidden domains of the slave’s experience.”—Sydney Nathans, Duke University

“In this well conceived, carefully edited, and judiciously annotated anthology of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century slave narratives by Moses Roper, Lunsford Lane, Moses Grandy, and Thomas H. Jones, William L. Andrews and his fellow editors make compelling arguments for recuperating these texts and recognizing their relationships to the better known narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. North Carolina Slave Narratives has much to offer to the general public, as well as scholars and students.”—Vincent Carretta, University of Maryland