Life Writing
Life writing has been one of the central pillars of the Black American print tradition. From the conversion and abolitionist narratives of the late eighteenth century to the classic slave narratives of the 1840s and 1850s to the memoirs and sketches of the late nineteenth century, Black writers have consistently invented and reinvented themselves through print narratives.
Early Black life writing combined traditional Christian conversion narratives with critiques of enslavement. By the mid-nineteenth century, narratives with the familiar “written by him/her-self” subtitle proliferated and offered a more radical account of anti-Black racism. The slave narrative became one of the most popular literary forms in the Atlantic world, including Frederick Douglass’s blockbuster, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845).
However, not all Black life narratives were written by formerly enslaved people—Elleanor Eldridge and John Marrant were freeborn. Several narratives featured here (Eldridge and Coker) showcase Black Indigenous writers and ask us to consider shared and collective histories.
John Marrant. A Narrative of the Lord's Wonderful Dealings with John Marrant, a Black (Now Going to Preach the Gospel in Nova-Scotia) Born in New-York, in North America. London: Printed by T. Plummer for T. Williams, 1802.
John Marrant. A Narrative of the Life of John Marrant, of New York, in North America. Giving an Account of His Conversion When Only Fourteen Years of Age. Leeds: Davies and Co., 1815.
This 1815 edition of Marrant’s Narrative features a new title that does not mention Marrant’s race and emphasizes his young age rather than his emigration to Nova Scotia.
View selected pages from A Narrative of the Life of John Marrant
Daniel Coker. Journal of Daniel Coker: A Descendant of Africa, from the Time of Leaving New York, in the Ship Elizabeth, Capt. Sebor, on a Voyage for Sherbro, in Africa, in Company with Three Agents, and about Ninety Persons of Colour: With an Appendix. Baltimore: Edward J. Coale, 1820.
Minister, educator, scholar, emigration advocate. Daniel Coker was born enslaved in Baltimore, MD, and escaped to New York as a teenager. He taught at the African Academy in Baltimore in 1801, founded the Daniel Coker School in 1806, and was part of the collective that founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816. His “Dialogue between a Virginian and an African Minister” famously stages a conversation in which the minister converts an enslaver to abolition. By 1820, Coker had come to support Black emigration to and missionary work in Sierra Leone. The Journal outlines the details of his voyage to Sierra Leone. This copy of Coker’s Journal was a part of the Jared Sparks Library, “Purchased by the Cornell University, 1872.”
Front cover of the volume (American Colonization Society) containing Journal of Daniel Coker showing marbled case binding.
Back cover of the volume (American Colonization Society) containing Journal of Daniel Coker showing marbled case binding.
Case binding of the volume (American Colonization Society) containing Journal of Daniel Coker showing ribbon keeping the spine intact.
Spine of the volume (American Colonization Society) containing Journal of Daniel Coker
Title page for Journal of David Coker
Copyright notice listing Edward J. Coale as the copyright holder.
William Grimes. Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave. Written by Himself. New York, 1825.
“To him who has feeling, the condition of a slave, under any possible circumstances, is painful and unfortunate, and will excite the sympathy of all who have any.” Grimes published possibly the first book-length narrative by a “runaway” slave in 1825 to help support his wife and children, after he had to sell off much of his wealth to avoid re-enslavement. His father was a wealthy white Virginia planter, his mother an enslaved woman.
View selected pages from Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave
Elleanor Eldridge. Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge. Providence: B.T. Albro, 1838.
Eldridge was born free in Warwick, RI, ca. 1784. Her maternal grandmother, who likely belonged to the Narragansett Tribe, purchased Eldridge’s grandfather’s freedom before marrying him. He had been kidnapped from the Congo region and enslaved. Eldridge had Memoirs transcribed and published by Frances Green to support efforts to save her largest house, which had been sold through nefarious means while she was recovering from illness.
Solomon Northup. Twelve Years a Slave. Narrative of Solomon Northup, A Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853. Auburn: Derby and Miller, 1853.
“I felt there was no trust or mercy in unfeeling man; and commending myself to the God of the oppressed, bowed my head upon my fettered hands, and wept most bitterly.” Twelve Years a Slave recounts Northup’s harrowing experience as a free Black man, who was kidnapped from Washington, D.C., and enslaved in 1841. This copy bears the inscription, “Samuel J. May. Syracuse. July 22, 1853.” May was a white abolitionist who donated to the Cornell Library his collection of over 10,000 pamphlets documenting the abolitionist movement.
Harriet Jacobs. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself. Boston: Published for the Author, 1861.
Tittle page for Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl listing L. Maria Child as "editor."
Childhood, the first chapter of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: "I was born a slave but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood passed away."
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl open to page 300, where Linda reads her own "bill of sale."
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl open to page 301, where Linda reads her own "bill of sale."
Library binding spine for Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Sojourner Truth. Narrative of Sojourner Truth. Edited with an Introduction by Margaret Washington. New York: Vintage, 1993.
“On the public stage, enveloped in a sense of divine dispensation, Sojourner Truth merged two cultural antecedents: the gift of African oral expression and the pragmatism of rural nineteenth-century America”
-Sojourner Truth
This edition of Truth’s Narrative was edited by Margaret Washington, Marie Underhill Noll Professor of American History, Emeritus, Cornell University.
Sojourner Truth. Narrative of Sojourner Truth, A Northern Slave, Emancipated from Bodily Servitude by the State of New York, in 1828. With a Portrait. Boston: Printed for the Author, 1850.
Born into enslavement in 1797 in New York and named “Isabella,” Truth would become a pioneer of Black feminist thought and one of the most recognizable speakers of her day. Truth first dictated her life story to Olive Gilbert and published it in 1850. In addition to a narrative of Truth’s life and emancipation, this early edition also includes excerpts from Theodore Weld’s American Slavery as It Is. Truth was able to support herself and her work, including buying a home, in part, through the ongoing sale of her narrative.
Sojourner Truth. Narrative of Sojourner Truth; A Bondswoman of Olden Time, Emancipated by the New York Legislature in the Early Part of the Present Century; with a History of Her Labors and Correspondence Drawn from Her "Book of Life." Battle Creek, Mich.: Published for the Author, 1878.
