"Goodby to Sambo" the Contribution of Black Slave Narratives to the Abolition Movement
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"GOODBY TO SAMBO" THE CONTRIBUTIONOF BLACKSLAVE NARRATIVESTO THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT I . In 1962 Kenneth Lynn wrote in the invited to give a personal testimony to introduction to the Harvard edition of the society's membership or the public, Uncle Tom's Cabin: and the more articulate were frequently The shame of American literature is hired to ride the abolitionist circuit, the degree to which our authors of raising funds and propagandizing for the 1830's and 1840's kept silent the abolition of slavery. Armedwith during the rising storm of debate the recommendations from presidents of on the slavery issue.1 local societies many former slaves, We need not feel quite so ashamed if we such as Lewis and Milton Clarke, James stretch our notion of "American litera- W. C. Pennington, and Frederick Douglass, ture" and "our authors" beyond Cooper made a career out of lecturing about anLdPoe, Hawthorne and Melville, to their personal experiences and exposing include a large group of black writers the institution of slavery. Their nar- which made a significant contribution ratives were simply outgrowths of their to the anti-slavery debate during the public accounts. James W. C. Pennington's very years which Kenneth Lynn finds so preface to his account is typical: barren. The brief narrative I here intro- I want to focus attention on black duce to the public, consists of out- contributions to the abolitionist cause line notes originally thrown to- and specifically on the fugitive slave gether to guide my memorywhen narratives which appeared in large num- lecturing on this part of the sub- bers on Northern book markets during the ject of slavery.3 1830's and 1840's.2 First, abolition The slave narratives had two main societies sponsored them--sometimes even purposes. One was to expose the work- directed, produced and ghost-wrote them; ings of slavery by cataloging the hard- secondly, they added the literary form ships, sufferings, and cruelties which of the autobiography and adventure story the institution caused. The other was to the largely prosy production of ser- to build a sympathetic picture of the mons, tracts, speeches, and essays which narrator. Some played up one side. we tend to think of as making up the "This little book is a voice from the bulk of abolitionist writings; and, most prison-house, unfolding the deeds of important of all, they provided new darkness which are there perpetrated," images of the Negro and the Southern read the preface to the Narrative of plantation system which challenged the William Wells Brown.4 ThEy'als-oplayed current stereotypes and gave to Mrs. up the sentimental or the sensational. Harriet Beecher Stowe the needed models Whowould have paid attention to the and materials to transform into the most pious preface of Henry Box Brown's effective popular indictment of American narrative, which stated that the book slavery in the nineteenth century. had not been introduced to the public II. "for the purpose of administering to The period between 1831 and 1851, a prurient desire 'to hear and see some between the appearance of William Lloyd new thing,???5 when the title read: Garrison's Liberator and Uncle Tom's Narrative of Henry Box Brown, who es- Cabin, saw both a growing public inter- caped from slavery enclosed in a box est in the slavery question and an ever- three feet long, two wide, and two and increasing flow North of fugitive slaves. a half high!" But, sensational or seri- Looking for temporary relief or for aid ous, the "prison-house view" helped to in locating housing and work, fugitives wipe away from Northern eyes the mists often visited the offices of anti-slavery of sentiment through which they, with societies for help. Many of them were the aid of saccharine plantation roman- 79 cers like Caroline Howard Gilman, were tury, Douglass had published three sep- only too apt to view the workings of arate autobiographies. At least one the "patriarchal" institution. version was available in England, France, For readers who felt that slavery Germany, and Sweden. was basically a sound institution whose The dominant image that emerges of abuses were open to reform without Frederick Douglass in his 1845 narrative emancipating the Negro, the portrait is that of the intelligent and militant of the sympathetic black narrator was black reformer whose method of handling probably more persuasive. Negro nar- ambiguous and threatening situations in rators were anxious to show that their life is confrontation. own aspirations matched those of their Born of a slave mother whomDouglass white contemporaries. They described saw only twice in his life and of a their yearnings for freedom, their at- white father whomhe never saw, he was tempts while in slavery to get indepen- sent when quite young to the city of dent work, to get an education, to join Baltimore to be trained for the reputedly a church, to insure family stability easy task of the house-servant. His and, once in the North, to take part master and mistress, a Mr. and Mrs. in a freer society on its own terms. Hugh Auld, are to begin with quite The successful Negro freeman had many friendly to the young boy. But this faces and occupations. Whether he was kindness does not last for long. Mr. a farmer, like Charles Ball; a minister, Auld catches his wife trying to teach like Pennington; an abolitionist, like young Frederick how to read and lec- Douglass; a businessman, like Paul tures her that teaching him is "unlawful, Cuffe; or a laborer and small trades- as well as unsafe,? and that learning man, like William Grimes, the success- spoils "the best nigger in the world" ful black freeman was the most effective by making him "unmanageable," "discon- indictment against the Negro as slave. tented,? and "unhappy.??8 But the young III. boy has been listening at the door and The narratives of Henry Bibb, Wil- these are the thoughts he takes away with liam Wells Brown, Solomon Northup, him: Frederick Douglass, and Josiah Henson It was a new and special revelation, were popular then and are still quite explaining dark and mysterious things, readable today.6 The last two, the with which my youthful understanding Narrative of Frederick Douglass (1845) had struggled, but struggled in vain. and the Life of Josiah Henson (1849), I now understood what had been to me contributeci the models for Uncle Tom a most perplexing difficulty--to wit, and for George Harris in Uncle Tom's the white man's power to enslave the Cabin7- -characters which significantly black man. It was a grand achieve- altered the American public's image of ment, and I prized it highly. From the Negro before the Civil War. William that moment, I understood the path- Grimes, a less respectable fugitive than way from slavery to freedom.9 Henson or Douglass, accomplished nothing Frederick Douglass now takes to the as remarkable as they, but the sale of streets to continue what Mrs. Auld began. his more average account at least helped By bribing little white street urchins keep his head above water and showed with bread, Frederick Douglass manages something of the fate of the fugitive to trick them into repeating to him in the inhospitable Northern city. their lessons in school. Frederick Douglass' narrative was From the Aulds, he is sent to the most popular slave account which another Baltimore relation to work on appeared before the Civil War. It ap- a plantation. Here he proves so trouble- peared in 1845 and a first edition was some that he is sent away to be tamed by sold out in four months. Within the year, Edward Covey, a "slave-breaker" in the four more printings supplied the popular neighborhood. Fed a steady diet of whip- demand, and it was re-issued in 1848 ping and work, Frederick Douglass admits and 1849. By 1850, 30,000 copies had that Covey succeeded in breaking him: been sold in the United States and the I was somewhatunmanageable when I British Isles. By the turn of the cen- first went there, but a few months 80 of this discipline tamed me. Mr. Brought up in the family of kindly Covey succeeded in breaking me. I and jovial Dr. McP., Henson writes: was broken in body, soul, and spirit. 'My master and fellow servants used to My natural elasticity was crushed, look upon me, and speak of me, as a my intellect languished, the disposi- wonderfully smart fellow, and prophesy tion to read departed . and behold the great things I should do when I be- a man transformed into a brute!l1 came a man."'l4 First he is made a driver The burden of Douglass' social criticism and when he is able to turn in his over- is given in the last seven words: "behold seer for cheating, his master gives him a man transformed into a brute!" His the job and he is able to turn out double early separation form parents "to hinder crops with a cheerful labor force. the child's affection towards its One day, he hears the preaching of mother??;ll the joint efforts of Mr. and an evangelist and becomes converted. Mrs. Auld to keep him from learning to This conversion he regards as the great- read and write; the humiliation of being est change in his life: ranked with pigs, cows, and horses on the . I date my conversion, and my plantation; and the efforts of Mr. Covey awakening to a new life . from to break him all point to the same conclu- this day so memorable to me.