These two books are sometimes very hard going, but essential reading for Americans. We probably tend to think about slavery very much in the abstract, when we even think about it, but these narratives make it painfully palpable and very human. In a way complementary to Akhil Reed Amar’s brilliant description of the way slavery thoroughly corrupted the American political system (in his America’s Constitution), these books reveal in detail the thoroughgoing and extraordinary moral perversion slaveholding caused in individual lives – to some extent those of slaves, but much more those of slave owners, poor southern whites, and complicit northerners. Of course we also see the brutality, horrors and deprivations of slave life.

Douglass’ narrative is better known than Jacobs.’ Among many other things, how he taught himself to write is a remarkable story of shrewdness and determination against all odds. Jacobs’ was an appalling life of virtually constant sexual harassment from an early age, which was undoubtedly a normal situation for many female slaves. What she went through to escape it is hard to imagine, and her single-minded determination to see her children free is incredible. The picture she gives of the distortions slavery caused in slaveholding families – lecherous men unconstrained by law or convention, angry and vengeful wives, gossip and whispering among white and black children and adults, children sold by their fathers to get the family features and relations out of sight and mind, and the increasing corruption of individuals’ characters this caused over time – again, hard going but essential reading. A peculiar institution, ordained by God, good for the slave and slaveholder alike. Indeed.
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A great introduction to the depressing, yet amazingly hopeful, world of slave narrative. ( )

Frederick Douglass hardly needs to be defended, right? In case you haven't read this, and think it might be speechy or difficult to read, it's not. Douglass is smart enough to know he doesn't have to tell you how to feel; his story is plenty gripping enough without editorializing. And while he's an eloquent writer, and will occasionally engage in rhetoric, the thing's only 100 pages long; it flies. (Besides, he earns his rhetoric. Remember that hundreds of slave narratives were written. Douglass' is the classic because it's very, very good. They didn't pick his name out of a hat.) It's an amazing piece of work, and I can't imagine a reason not to read it.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was new to me, but it's almost as good. Jacobs isn't as polished as Douglass, but she has a directness that's really appealing, and a boldness that's sortof awesome. She writes unflinchingly about the widespread rape of slaves by white men. Douglass does too, but she focuses relentlessly on it. Incidents becomes a twisted mirror image of [b:Pamela|417549|Pamela Or, Virtue Rewarded|Samuel Richardson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174571531s/417549.jpg|2214950]: this is how that book turns out if it's set in American and the serving woman is a slave. (And if you throw some Anne Frank in for good measure.)

I was really happy to see this edition, combining both accounts; it's smart to put them together. Brilliant stuff.

For some context, the best essay I read was Caille Millner's "The Slave Narrative" in [b:A New Literary History of America.|6694761|A New Literary History of America (Harvard University Press Reference Library)|Greil Marcus|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275979828s/6694761.jpg|6890289] ( )

Classic ( )

Excellent, but grim peek into the mindset of both master and slave, filtered through the slave experience. Tough reading, but I think it should be required reading for school. ( )