Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Bondwoman's Narrative -- The Slave Narrative Explained -- Blog Post Five

As we have learned throughout the semester, Slave Narratives are autobiographical works written by freed or escaped slaves. According to Lisa Clayton Robinson, slave narratives served a two-fold purpose for their authors: “it was a way of publicizing the horrors they had gone through, and it was also a method of proving their humanity…Slave authors were able to display their emotions and their intellects through their narratives” (Robinson). Furthermore, many of the slave narratives that we have read have been influenced by a heavy religious tradition. Donaghy and Wilhelm argue:

“Religion is a key component of early slave narratives. Conversion to Christianity gave African Americans a higher status, and in some cases baptism could lead to freedom…In addition, most readers of slave narratives were also Christians and became strongly invested in the slaves' stories because of their emphasis on religion” (Donaghy & Wilhelm).
Religion
Two of the narratives that we have read depend heavily on religious tradition and imagery. James Albert (Ukawsaw Gronniosaw) and Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa) narratives’ both make religious illusions and speak of salvation. While they use different rhetorical strategies to “prove” their salvation, they both go through a “conversion process” which occurs in four stages: estrangement, loneliness, contemplation, and finally emancipation (Tanglen 9/4/2009). These particular narratives and many others borrow heavily from White Christian traditions in order to make themselves appealing to their White Christian Readers.

Literacy
In many of the narratives that we have read, the authors go to great lengths to express their desire for literacy. In some of the narratives that we have read, this desire for literacy is expressed through the trope of the talking book. According to Bruce et al.,
“Equiano makes clear the quest for learning and the difficulty involved in acquiring it in his Interesting Narrative, wherein he sets up the trope of the talking book. Having observed his master and others moving their lips and reading out loud when examining a book (a common practice before this century), he, not yet literate, concluded that they were “talking” to the book, appearing to be carrying on a conversation with it” (Bruce et al.).
Additionally, the “trope of the talking book” also pointed to the changing ways of recording history among African slaves. According to Donaghy and Wilhelm, “prior to the publication of the first known African American slave narratives in the 1660s, the methods of preserving memory in the slave community were primarily oral and visual—dance, song, and storytelling” (Donaghy & Wilhelm).

Furthermore, many slave narrative authors also spend great amounts of time detailing how they learned to read and write. This occurred for two main reasons. First, it further proved the case for the humanity of blacks by providing evidence that they were able and willing to learn. Second, it bolstered the author’s and the narrative’s credibility.

Literary Conventions within the Slave Narrative

Sentimental Conventions
The authors of slave narratives often mimicked literary conventions included in popular works of their time. This served a dual purpose: it gave the narrative a greater appeal to its audience and also bolstered the author’s credibility because it demonstrated their “learnedness.” According to Donaghy and Wilhelm, “The similarities between novels of sentiment and slave narratives are striking, to be sure…This similarity suggests that the slave narrative, a purported true account of life in bondage, was more palatable to readers when the truth of the brutality of slavery was somewhat obscured by language and context” (Donaghy & Wilhelm). They further argue that while “Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs included graphic descriptions of physical violence in their accounts” they “did so in language that appears to be extremely contrived” (Donaghy & Wilhelm).
“These literary contrivances suggest that the authors had to keep in mind their intended audience in their efforts to recount and expose the horrors of slavery. This audience consisted mostly of educated white women from the northern middle-class and to a lesser extent men of the same social background. Appealing to the northern woman's sense of female or maternal compassion through a grammar and dialect similar to her own was an easier way for the writers of slave narratives to persuade readers to identify with the plight of slaves—an identification which might then incite readers to action” (Donaghy & Wilhelm).
Travel or Adventure Narratives
Of the narratives that we have read, Equiano’s narrative, in particular, contains many passages that mimic the literary conventions of “travel or adventure narratives.” Equiano details his experiences and encounters as he travels from place to place. He also recounts the adventures that he sets out upon, for example: sailing to other continents, being caught in a storm, etcetera.
According to Graham Dawson, “the adventure hero himself is an idealized figure whose actions render him superior to other characters and to the environment in which he moves…These qualities enable his overcoming of all obstacle to the successful completion of his quest…The adventure quest therefore provides a powerful metaphor for the human capacity to endeavor, risk and win through; for the prevailing of human purpose in the world” (Dawson 55).
Many of the narratives that we have read during the semester have included passages that detail the authors’ travels – from Africa to America, from Africa to the West Indies, or within America itself. These narratives have borrowed from – and built upon – the literary conventions of the travel/adventure narratives.

The Bondwoman’s Narrative contextualized by Slave Narrative Conventions

Desire for Literacy
The following is a passage from The Confessions of Nat Turner, a narrative that we read earlier this semester:
“…to a mind like mine, restless, inquisitive and observant of every thing that was passing, it is easy to suppose that religion was the subject to which it would be directed, and although this subject principally occupied my thoughts—there was nothing that I saw or heard of to which my attention was not directed— The manner in which I learned to read and write, not only had great influence on my own mind, as I acquired it with the most perfect ease, so much so that I have no recollection whatever of learning the alphabet—but to the astonishment of the family, one day, when a book was shewn me to keep me from crying, I began spelling the names of different objects—this was a source of wonder to all in the neighborhood, particularly the blacks—and this learning was constantly improved at all opportunities— when I got large enough to go to work, while employed, I was reflecting on many things that would present themselves to my imagination, and whenever an opportunity occurred of looking at a book, when the school children were getting their lessons, I would find many things that the fertility of my own imagination had depicted to me before…” (Turner 250).
The following passage is taken from The Bondwoman’s Narrative:
“I had from the first an instinctive desire for knowledge and the means of mental improvement. Though neglected and a slave, I felt the immortal longings in me. In the absence of books and teachers and schools I determined to learn if not in a regular, approved, and scientific way...I was a mere child and some hours of each day were allotted to play. On such occasions, and while the other children of the house were amusing themselves I would quietly steal away from their company to ponder over the pages of some old book or newspaper that chance had thrown in my way” (Crafts 6-7).
The similarities between the two passages serve as an example of the emphasis on literacy that is a major convention of the slave narrative genre. In both passages, Turner and Crafts express their desire for literacy from a very early age. Additionally, both describe stealing away from other children and their chores to read books and any other reading materials they could find.

Condemnation of Slavery/Expression of Abolitionist Sentiment
The following is a passage from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, a narrative that we read earlier this semester:

“O, ye nominal Christians! might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you? Is it not enough that we are torn from our country and friends to toil for your luxury and lust of gain? Must every tender feeling be likewise sacrificed to your avarice? [Page 88] Are the dearest friends and relations, now rendered more dear by their separation from their kindred, still to be parted from each other, and thus prevented from cheering the gloom of slavery with the small comfort of being together and mingling their sufferings and sorrows? Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, or husbands their wives? Surely this is a new refinement in cruelty, which, while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress, and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery. (Equiano 79).
The following passage is taken from The Bondwoman’s Narrative:
“Degradation, neglect, and ill treatment had wrought on them its legitimate effects. All day they toil beneath the burning sun, scarcely conscious that any link exists between themselves and other portions of the human race....What do you think of it? Doctors of Divinity Isn’t it a strange state to be like them...It must be strange to live in a world of civilization and, elegance and refinement, and yet know nothing about either, yet that is the way with multitudes and with non more that the slaves. The Constitution that asserts the right of freedom and equality to all mankind is a sealed book to the, and so is the Bible, that tells how Christ dies for all; the bond as well as the free” (Crafts 200-201).
The similarities between the two passages indicate the strain of anti-slavery sentiment that shaped many of the slave narratives that we read. However, this tendency did not impact all of the narratives that we were exposed to—Gronniosaw’s narrative was not shaped by anti-slavery sentiment, rather religious conversion and salvation. The tendency towards writing narratives that included anti-slavery sentiment impacted many of the later narratives that we read: Eqiuano, Douglass, Jacobs, etc.


Works Cited

Dawson, Graham. “Soldier Heroes: British Adventure, Empire, and the Imagining of Masculinities.

            Routledge. 1994. Print.


Dickson, Bruce D., Shields, John C., John Sekora, Craig H. Werner and Valerie Smith. “Literary History.”

            The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Ed. William L.Andrews. Ed.

            Frances SmithFoster. Ed. TrudierHarris. Oxford African American Studies Center. Retrieved

            November 27, 2009. <http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t52/e650>


Donaghy, Daniel &.Wilhelm, Stephanie J. “Slave Narratives.” Encyclopedia of African American History,

            1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass. Ed. Paul Finkelman.

            Oxford African American Studies Center. Retrieved November 27, 2009.

            http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0004/e0510.


Equiano, Olaudah. “Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.” Slave Narratives. Eds. William L.

            Andrews & Henry Louis Gates Jr. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam Inc., 2002. Pages 35-242.


Robinson, Lisa Clayton. “Slave Narratives.” Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African

            American Experience, Second Edition. Ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr.

            Oxford African American Studies Center. Retrieved November 27, 2009.

            <http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0002/e3592.>


Turner, Nat. “The Confessions of Nat Turner.” Slave Narratives. Eds. William L. Andrews & Henry Louis

             Gates Jr. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam Inc., 2002. Pages 243-266.

5 comments:

  1. Did your narrative have any signs of textual mediation? We found that to be one of the similarities between our narrative and others. Great job!
    Chitra

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  2. Knowing that having an "innate" desire for literacy would increase their credibility to white readers, I wonder if Crafts and Turner could have perhaps overemphasized (or maybe even lied outright about) having natural predispositions toward literacy... It seems that there are a host of different rhetorical strategies the author of the slave narrative could employ, perhaps dishonestly, to their advantage (i.e. exaggerating religiosity, literacy, modernity, etc.) I think this fact gives us good reason to question the authenticity of the narratives...

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  3. @ Chitra - As far as I know, the text wasn't mediated. Before Gates had the novel published in 2002, it had been in manuscript form for 150 years. Gates claims that he only edited the novel for spelling errors. Also, because the text was in manuscript/rough draft form when he found it, he also included sentences and words that Crafts had crossed out.

    @ Jon: I think that you're right; these "stratagies" do give us good reason to approach the texts with caution.

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  4. Great post! The organization of this post made it extremely easy to read and understand. Great information!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It looks like you put a lot of thought and hard work into this. Great job!

    ReplyDelete