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.
1800s
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1900s
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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.
Total fictionalized narratives, 1810-1819: 1
Hildreth, Richard, 1807-1865. The Slave, or Memoirs of Archy Moore. (2 Vols) Boston: J. H. Eastburn, 1836. [Link to Volume Two]
Total fictionalized narratives, 1830-1839: 1
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.
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.
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.
Total fictionalized narratives, 1840-1849: 3
Pierson, Emily Catharine. Jamie Parker, the Fugitive. Hartford: Brockett, Fuller, 1851.
Hildreth, Richard, 1807-1865. The White Slave, or, Memoirs of a Fugitive. Boston: Tappan and Whittemore, 1852.
Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895. The Heroic Slave. Julia Griffiths, ed., Autographs for Freedom(Boston: Jewett, 1853), pp. 174-239.
Browne, Martha Griffith, d. 1906. Autobiography of a Female Slave. New York: Redfield, 1857.
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.
Total fictionalized narratives, 1850-1859: 5
Griest, Ellwood, 1824-1900. John and Mary; or, The Fugitive Slaves, a Tale of South-Eastern Pennsylvania. Lancaster, PA: Inquirer, 1873.
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.
Total fictionalized narratives, 1870-1879: 2
Lintner, Grace, 1832-1919. Bond and Free; a Tale of the South. Indianapolis, IN: C. B. Ingraham, 1882.
Total fictionalized narratives, 1880-1889: 1
Chandler, Charles. The Story of a Slave; a Realistic Revelation of a Social Relation of Slave Times Hitherto Unwritten. Chicago: Wesley, Elmore & Benson, 1894.
Total fictionalized narratives, 1890-1899: 1
Crafts, Hannah. The Bondwoman's Narrative. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Warner Books, 2002.
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.
Total fictionalized narratives, 1900-2002: 2
Total fictionalized narratives, 1815-2002: 16