University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library

American slavery as it is; testimony of a thousand witnesses by Theodore Dwight Weld( )

7 editions published between 2000 and 2011 in English and held by 983 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Provides the testimonies of ex-slaves describing the social conditions of slaves in the South

Behind the scenes : or, Thirty years a slave and four years in the White House by Elizabeth Keckley( )

6 editions published between 1999 and 2011 in English and held by 958 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Behind the Scenes is the life story of Elizabeth Keckley, a shrewd entrepreneur who, while enslaved, raised enough money to purchase freedom for herself and her son. Keckley moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a seamstress and dressmaker for the wives of influential politicians. She eventually became a close confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln. Several years after President Lincoln's assassination, when Mrs. Lincoln's financial situation had worsened, Keckley helped organize an auction of the former first lady's dresses, eliciting strong criticism from members of the Washington elite. Behind the Scenes is, therefore, both a slave narrative and Keckley's attempt to defend the motives behind the auction. However, the book's publication prompted an even greater public outcry, with the added racial subtext of white society's disdain for Keckley's audacity in publishing details of the Lincolns' private lives. Keckley's dressmaking business failed, the Lincoln family cut all ties with her, and she lived out her final days in a home for the indigent. Scholars have acknowledged the book's valuable account of slave life as well as its intimate view into the Lincoln White House. Biographers of the Lincolns have quoted extensively from Keckley's text

The confessions of Nat Turner; leader of the late insurrection in Southampton, Va by Nat Turner( )

5 editions published between 1999 and 2011 in English and held by 926 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Perhaps no other moment in history crystallized the fears of slave owners in the South like the August 21-22, 1831, slave insurrection led by Nat Turner in Southampton, Virginia. 'The Confessions of Nat Turner' details Turner's life and the events surrounding that armed revolt, which left more than fifty men, women, and children dead and that culminated in Turner's execution

Narrative of William W. Brown, an American slave by William Wells Brown( )

8 editions published between 1996 and 2015 in English and held by 902 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

By 1849, this book was in its fourth edition, having sold over 8,000 copies in less than eighteen months and making it one of the fastest-selling antislavery tracts of its time. The book's popularity can be attributed both to the strong voice of its author and Brown's notoriety as an abolitionist speaker. The son of a slave and a white man, Brown recounts his years in servitude, his cruel masters, and the brutal whippings he and those around him received. He details his failed attempt to escape with his mother; after their capture, they were sold to new masters. A subsequent escape attempt succeeds

The experience of a slave in South Carolina by John Andrew Jackson( )

6 editions published between 1996 and 2011 in English and held by 901 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

InThe Experience of a Slave in South Carolina, escaped slave John Andrew Jackson seeks to educate his readers on the horrors of slavery. He spares no details in relating the murder of his sister, the separation of his family, and his own frequent whippings at the hands of a "Christian" master and mistress. He offers a scathing review of white religious hypocrisy, criticizing those who could not see the contradiction between worshiping a merciful God on Sundays and holding slaves under inhumane conditions. Jackson details his escape from slavery into Massachusetts as a ship stowaway after he is separated by sale from his first wife and child. He also describes his interactions with Harriet Beecher Stowe; his failed attempts to purchase the freedom of his family members; and his eventual escape into Canada following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. His work also includes a variety of carefully recorded hymns and antislavery songs. Jackson would eventually flee to England with his second wife before returning to South Carolina after the War. A DOCSOUTH BOOK. This collaboration between UNC Press and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library brings selected classic works from the digital library of Documenting the American South back into print. DocSouth Books uses the latest digital technologies to make these works available as downloadable e-books or print-on-demand publications. DocSouth Books are unaltered from the original publication, providing affordable and easily accessible editions to a new generation of scholars, students, and general readers

The experience of Rev. Thomas H. Jones who was a slave for forty-three years by Thomas H Jones( )

7 editions published between 2002 and 2011 in English and held by 891 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Walker's appeal, in four articles ; together with a preamble to the colored citizens of the world, but in particular, and very expressly to those of the United States of America by David Walker( )

5 editions published between 2001 and 2011 in English and held by 886 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

First published in 1829, 'Walker's Appeal' called on slaves to rise up and free themselves. The two subsequent versions of his document (including the reprinted 1830 edition published shortly before Walker's death) were increasingly radical. Addressed to the whole world but directed primarily to people of colour around the world, the 87-page pamphlet by a free black man born in North Carolina and living in Boston advocates immediate emancipation and slave rebellion

Slave songs of the United States by William Francis Allen( )

5 editions published in 2011 in English and held by 876 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

First published in 1867, Slave Songs of the United States represents the work of its three editors, all of whom collected and annotated these songs while working in the Sea Islands of South Carolina during the Civil War, and also of other collectors who transcribed songs sung by former slaves in other parts of the country. The transcriptions are preceded by an introduction written by William Francis Allen, the chief editor of the collection, who provides his own explanation of the origin of the songs and the circumstances under which they were sung. One critic has noted that, like the editors' introductions to slave narratives, Allen's introduction seeks to lend to slave expressions the honor of white authority and approval. Gathered during and after the Civil War, the songs, most of which are religious, reflect the time of slavery, and their collectors worried that they were beginning to disappear. Allen declares the editors' purpose to be to preserve, "while it is still possible ... these relics of a state of society which has passed away."

Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson( )

2 editions published in 2006 in English and held by 710 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Contains primary source material

Narrative of the life of Moses Grandy ; formerly a slave in the United States of America by Moses Grandy( )

5 editions published between 1996 and 2011 in English and held by 474 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Born into slavery in North Carolina around 1786, Moses Grandy was bequeathed to his young playmate, his original owner's son, when they were both eight years old. Hired out until he was twenty-one, Grandy describes each of his temporary masters--some cru