Reviews

The Civitas Anthology Of African American Slave Narratives by William L. Andrews, Counterpoint

ryner's review

5.0

A difficult and harrowing but important sample of American literature, not only in terms of its significance to our nation's history, but also in inspiring compassion and humanity as this very long, shameful chapter in our nation's past continues to have reverberations today. When compared with the political climate over 150 years later, one can't help but note that the hypocrisy of professing piety and being a "good Christian," while simultaneously ignoring -- and worse, contributing to -- the suffering of fellow humans is apparently eternal. This sentence, when Mary Prince is first introduced to Christianity, broke my heart: "When I found out that I was a great sinner, I was very sorely grieved, and very much frightened." Any number of these narratives would make a riveting feature film or documentary. I was especially awed by Harriet Jacobs' incredible story.

my_potato_farm's review

5.0

I'll have to take this out of the library again to finish it. I read the narratives of Mary Prince, Nat Turner, and William Wells Brown. This book is both impossible to put down, and impossible to pick up. It's very harrowing.

Someone should make a movie out of William Wells Brown's life. That guy's story is amazing!

Jan. 2017 - read Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.