A review by robertrivasplata
The Classic Slave Narratives by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

5.0

These 4 narratives will have me thinking in early 19th century english for a while. All 4 memoirs are riveting stories that had me on the edge of my seat. I also appreciated these memoirs for their historical and anthropological details of the slave societies of the Americas. When Linda Brent wrote "[My] bill of sale is on record, and future generations will learn from it that women were articles of traffic in New York, late in the 19th century of the Christian religion", I felt like she was looking right at me! All 4 memoirs illustrate that much slave labor in the slave economies was paid, but just not to the enslaved people actually doing the work. Douglass, Equiano, & Prince all worked alongside freemen and whites doing the same work while enslaved, and were paid like them, but the difference was that they were required to turn over their earnings to their "owners". Equiano's travels as a sailor offers a great look at the Caribbean-Atlantic economy of the late 18th century, and of the shipping industry of the time. I also especially liked his ironic use of the word "Christian". Linda Brent's reluctance to confide her status as runaway slave even to those she trusted after she escaped to the north reminded me of similar stories I've heard from undocumented immigrants.