Fictionalized Slave Narratives Listed Alphabetically
The antislavery movement in the nineteenth century generated a number of narratives about slavery, some widely read, that were subsequently revealed to be fictitious or heavily fictionalized, though sometimes based on an actual case or person. The following titles represent nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts that are now regarded as substantially fictitious or highly novelized accounts of slavery.
- Browne, Martha Griffith, d. 1906. Autobiography of a Female
Slave. New York: Redfield, 1857.
- Chandler, Charles. The Story of a Slave; a
Realistic Revelation of a Social Relation of Slave Times Hitherto
Unwritten. Chicago: Wesley, Elmore & Benson, 1894.
- Crafts, Hannah. The Bondwoman's Narrative.
Ed. Henry Louis Gates,
Jr.New York:Warner Books, 2002.
- Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895. The Heroic Slave. Julia
Griffiths, ed., Autographs for Freedom (Boston: Jewett, 1853), pp.
174-239.
- Griest, Ellwood, 1824-1900. John and Mary; or, The
Fugitive Slaves, a Tale of South-Eastern Pennsylvania. Lancaster, PA:
Inquirer, 1873.
- Hammond, Jabez Delano, 1778-1855. Life and Opinions of
Julius Melbourn; with Sketches of the Lives and Characters of Thomas
Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, John Randolph, and Several other Eminent
American Statesmen. Syracuse, NY: Hall & Dickson, 1847.
- Hildreth, Richard, 1807-1865. The Slave, or Memoirs of Archy
Moore. (2 Vols) Boston: J. H. Eastburn, 1836. [Link to Volume 2]
- ---. The White Slave, or, Memoirs of a Fugitive. Boston:
Tappan and Whittemore, 1852.
- Lee, William Mack, b. 1835. History of the Life of
Rev. Wm. Mack Lee, Body Servant of General Robert E. Lee through the Civil War, Cook from 1861 to 1865; Still Living under the Protection of the Southern States.
Norfolk, VA: Smith Printing, 1918.
- Lintner, Grace, 1832-1919. Bond and Free; a Tale of the
South. Indianapolis, IN: C. B. Ingraham, 1882.
- Neilson, Peter, 1795-1861. The Life and Adventures
of Zamba, an African Negro King; and His Experience of Slavery in South
Carolina. Written by Himself. London: Smith, Elder, 1847.
- Pierson, Emily Catharine. Jamie Parker, the
Fugitive. Hartford: Brockett, Fuller, 1851.
- Platt, Smith H. The Martyrs, and the
Fugitive; or a Narrative of the Captivity, Sufferings, and Death of an African
Family, and the Slavery and Escape of Their Son. New York: Daniel
Fanshaw, 1859.
- Richmond, Legh, 1772-1827. "The Negro Servant" in Annals of the Poor. Containing The Dairyman's Daughter, (with considerable additions) The Negro Servant, and The Young Cottager. New Haven: Whiting and Tiffany, Sign of Franklin's Head, Corner of College Green, 1815.
- Slavery Illustrated, in the Histories of Zangara and Maquama, Two
Negroes Stolen from Africa and Sold into Slavery. Related by Themselves.
Manchester: Wm. Irwin, 1849.
- The Story of a
Slave. A Realistic Revelation of a Social Relation of Slave Times-- Hitherto
Unwritten--From the Pen of One Who Has Felt Both the Lash and the Caress
of a Mistress.[Chicago]: Wesley, Elmore & Benson, 1894.
- Twain, Mark (Samuel Langhorn Clemens), 1835-1910.
"A True Story, Repeated Word for Word As I Heard It."
The Atlantic Monthly Nov. 1874: 591-594.