University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library

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 1,509 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( )

9 editions published between 1996 and 2015 in English and held by 1,230 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

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

7 editions published between 1999 and 2011 in English and held by 1,217 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

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

8 editions published between 2000 and 2011 in English and held by 1,217 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

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

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

8 editions published between 1996 and 2011 in English and held by 1,082 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Experience of a Slave in South Carolina

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

8 editions published between 2002 and 2011 in English and held by 1,059 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Annotation

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

8 editions published between 2001 and 2011 in English and held by 1,057 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 color 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. Walker asks the slaves among his readers whether they wouldn't prefer to "be killed than to be a slave to a tyrant." He advises them not to "trifle" if they do rise up, but rather to kill those who would continue to enslave them and their wives and children. Copies of the pamphlet were smuggled by ship in 1830 from Boston to Wilmington, North Carolina, Walker's childhood home, causing panic among whites. In 1830, members of North Carolina's General Assembly had the Appeal in mind as they tightened the state's laws dealing with slaves and free black citizens. The resulting stricter laws led to more policies that repressed African Americans, freed and slave alike"--Publisher's description

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

6 editions published between 2011 and 2013 in English and held by 1,046 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 w

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

5 editions published between 1996 and 2011 in English and held by 969 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

Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson( )

3 editions published in 2006 in English and held by 896 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Contains primary source material