Post # 5

Slave narratives are personal accounts depicting what it was like to live as a slave. They served as both anti-slavery documents and testimony's for human rights, giving their northern audience pivotal information to fight the pro-slavery arguments of the south. After Emancipation, the purpose of the slave narratives changed to promote social equality instead of freedom. The tradition first appeared from written accounts of African's in Britain (and it's colonies) including, but not limited to, the United States and the Caribbean islands. Slave narratives are part of a larger genre of literature called "Captivity narratives," many of which were published before the American Revolution and written by colonists and settlers in North America who were held captive by Native Americans.

Toni Morrison's A Mercy is not dissimilar to a slave narrative given the period in which it was set, and the fact that some of the characters are in fact slaves. However since it is fiction, it does not receive the same classification as other narratives. A Mercy, and similar novels, are referred to as being "neo-slave narratives," which are defined as being accounts of slavery written in contemporary times. These Neo-Slave Narratives are also defined by the fact that the author relies on both fact and fiction during the creative process, exploring their imaginations, as well as using oral histories and existing slave narratives to tell a new story.

In class we have read both neo-slave narratives and traditional slave narratives, and many similarities can be found with those texts and A Mercy.

In the narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (published in 1861), Harriett Jacobs talks a lot about the importance of motherhood, as well as how detrimental slavery is to the institution of motherhood and a woman's sexual virtues. Most of the narrative focuses on her undying devotion to her children and her yearning for a better life for them, going so far as hiding in a small cramped space to keep her children safe with only a small hole in the roof to watch them from. Morrison's A Mercy primarily focuses on the lives of four women brought together by Jacob as slaves on his farm. Jacob's narrative depicts the lengths a mother will go to in order to keep her children safe, and in Morrison's novel we also get a taste of the selflessness of a slave mother. Much like Jacobs', Florens' mother does not want her child to be exposed to the sexual and physical abuse that often falls upon a female slave from a cruel owner. In Jacob's narrative she discusses the fact that her Master would follow her around, stare at her, and whisper inappropriate things in her ears at a young age. This is what Florens' mother was beginning to noticed with the way her master would make eyes at her daughter, so she gave her away to a stranger to ensure that her daughter would not face the same abuse we are told she experienced. The stranger was Jacob (who shares some similarities with Sawyer, from Jacobs' narrative), whom she offered her daughter to because he valued her "as a human child, not pieces of eight."

Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved and A Mercy (published 11 years after the former novel) paint a similar picture, but go about doing so in very different ways. Both novels are considered neo-slave narratives, and depict how psychologically damaging slavery is on both men and, in particular, women. All four women in A Mercy and particularly Sethe in Beloved suffered tremendously from the institution of slavery. Both novels involve the loss of a child at the will of the mother, whether it be through trade (A Mercy) or death (Beloved).

Works Cited:

"The Slave Narrative." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .

"Slave Narratives: An Introduction to the Slave Narrative." Documenting the American South homepage. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .

"Slave narratives." PBS. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .