Black Lives: True Stories of American Slaves

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The stories presented here are narratives by the American slaves in the 19th century that have become historical classics. These memoirs are not just literary expressions, but they provided the first-hand detailed accounts of what slavery had actually been like.

Twelve Years the Slave is an 1853 memoir by Solomon Northup, a New-York-State-born free African-American man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. He was put to work on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before being released.

Fifty Years in Chains is a gripping 1859 autobiography by Charles Ball, an enslaved African American from Maryland who never gave up his fight for freedom, despite his multiple failed attempts to escape and the perils and monstrous tortures set on fugitive slaves.

The Life of Frederic Douglas is a first of three autobiographies by Frederic Douglas, published in 1845 when he just gained his freedom. This eloquence account of the horror of slavery became an international bestseller. Douglas dedicated the rest of his life to social causes and became an eminent human rights activist of the 19th century.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an 1861 painful autobiography by Harriet Jacobs, published in under pen name Linda Brent. Jacobs was a fugitive slave and the book is one of the first in-depth chronological narratives on the life of female slaves and her struggle to gain freedom for herself and her children.