Chapter 1

SLAVERY DURING
ANTEBELLUM AND
POSTBELLUM ERA
Main Idea: Slave narratives
varied before and after the Civil
War. Read through the chapter to
analyze the differences.
Significance: Written accounts of
first-hand experience as slaves
changed the way Americans
viewed it as an institution and
catalyzed the abolitionist
movement.

Key terms: Frederick Douglass,

Harriet Jacobs, slave narratives,
antebellum, post-bellum, Civil
War

SECTION 1

Introduction

FOCUS QUESTIONS

What were some of the differences in treatment of

slaves before and after the Civil War?
How did the narrative styles in these accounts
compare?
What were the reasons that contributed to the
differences in slave narratives during the antebellum
and post-bellum period?

Slave and ex-slave narratives are what helped define
African-American history and literature. These primary sources
were critical in understanding the invaluable first-hand experience of slavery during the last two centuries. They were sold in
exponential amounts, many of which became best-sellers. But
more importantly, they opened to the academia of U.S. history,
the complexities of the dialogue between whites and blacks. Narratives by fugitive slaves recorded the disparities between Americas ideal of freedom and the reality of racism in the so-called
free-states (The North American Slave Narratives). After
the Civil War, documentation of slave experiences continued as
a reminder of the lingering threat that had difficulty dying off
in American society.

Slave narratives, during the antebellum period, have been
examined by scholars and literary analysts in order to determine
common themes and characteristics. Most narratives portrayed
a purpose of opening dialogue between blacks and whites about
slavery and freedom, topics that were feared to discuss in person
between the two races. These written works served as an indirect
medium to avoid confrontation and risk of any form of rebel2

lion by slaves because they simply informed readers on the

slave experience in a literary manner. This was an important
spark that helped ignite the abolitionist movement because it
increased awareness of racism to many Americans and challenged their conservative
views. Most of these narratives were written in a linear
structure, by creating the
story of an individuals journey from enslavement to freedom. The individual establishes his or her identity and
then describes life as a slave
filled with emotional language detailing the horrors
of family separation, the sexual abuse of black women,
the inhuman workload, the
brutality of flogging, and the
severe living conditions of
slave life (Publishers BindThe original book cover of Narrative of the
ings Online: Slave NarraLife of Frederick Douglass. (Douglsass,
tives).
1999)

slaves continued to record their experiences to prevent the dissipation of painful memories from the American public. In
addition, narratives produced post-bellum were meager in
number compared to the plethora of antebellum narratives.
Themes differed between the two as well. The narratives now
were more exclusive to nostalgic feelings and use of vivid imagery deteriorated as stories told simply became reaffirmations of past life. There was an attempt to use such nostalgic
memories as a form of validation in conquering the hardships endured by many African Americans. Ultimately, postbellum slave narratives became an argument on the readiness
of the freedman and freedwoman for full participation in the
post-Civil War social and economic order (North American
Slave Narratives).

After the Civil War, the enthusiasm for the slave narrative waned. The antebellum narrative served as a disclosure
on the horrors of the peculiar institution, but after the
Civil War settled the issue of slavery, the sympathy and enthusiasm elicited by former writers such as Frederick Douglass
and Harriet Jacobs seemed to decline. However, former
3

SECTION 2

Frederick Douglass: Antebellum slave narrative

During the first half of the nineteenth century, Frederick Douglass was one of the most influential slave narrative
authors in the crusade for abolition. As a former slave, he details the origins of his life and describes events that recounts
the horrors of slavery in many of his written memoirs and
narratives

took advantage of his literacy to become one of the

greatest advocates of racial
equality. Douglass, an active
member in reform movements, published Narrative
of the Life of Frederick
Douglass that describes a
vivid imagery of slavery and
the condemnation of racism.

Douglass was born into a life of slavery in Talbot
county, Maryland. He was the son of a slave mother and a
white man, whom might have been his first owner. Throughout his youth, he labored on farms. Some of his tasks involved driving up the cows at evening, keeping the fowls out
of the garden, keeping the front yard clean, and running errands for his old masters daughter (Douglass, 26). As Douglass grew older, his daily tasks expanded to a variety of jobs
including labor on a plantation field, work as a house servant,
and a skilled craftsman in a Baltimore shipyard. And in his
spare time, Douglass learned how to read and write with the
help of his owners wife and local white children (Foner, 395).
He took an opportunity to escape north around the age of
twenty and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts where he

In Narrative of the Life

of Frederick Douglass, this
slave narrative focuses on
the conflict between African
Americans and the oppresA mistress is reading to slave children
around the mid-nineteenth century.
(Adams, 2004).
4

too old for field labor, says Douglass (2). The reasons for
separation is not concrete but he claims that it is most likely
to hinder the development of the childs affection towards its
mother. Douglass adds that he only saw her mother no more
than four or five times and each visit was very short . This is
only the beginning regarding the type of treatment received
by slaves at the time. Douglass goes on to describe some of
the violence and physical hardships encountered by typical
slaves from cruel masters and overseers. Many were whipped
for mere pleasure and Douglass accounts one permanently
engraved memory on the torture received by his aunt. I
have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most
heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he sued
to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was
literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers,
from his gory victim seemed to move his torn heart from its
bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he
whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped
longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip
her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue,
would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin. (Douglass, 6). Not only his aunt but also many others were persecuted with this level of physical abuse under a vast majority
of Southern masters and overseers.

A sketch of Frederick Douglass from Narrative of

the Life of Frederick Douglass. (Douglass, 1999).

sive social order in the South during the antebellum era.

Many aspects of daily life, treatment, and insights of slaves
before the Civil War can be found in this work. Douglass
notes the coerced separation between slave mothers and their
children that was a common custom in Maryland. Before
the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken
from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance
off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman,

Douglass writes about the living conditions of many
slaves as well. He informs his audience that their was a
monthly allowance of food and yearly clothing distributed to
slaves but it was incredibly inadequate to live on. A typical allowance of monthly food included eight pounds of pork, or
5

their days work in the field, slaves returned one common

bed the cold, damp floor, -each covering himself or herself
with their miserable blankets; and here they sleep till they are
summoned to the field by the drivers horn. (10). Often, dozens of slaves were crammed into close quarters and many
were sleep deprived in order to prepare the field for the next
day.

A typical slave quarter during the mid-nineteenth century. (Adams,

2004)

its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal. (Douglass, 10). Yearly clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts,
one pair of linen trousers, like the shirts, one jacket, one pair
of trousers for winter, made of coarse negro cloth, one pair
of stockings, and one pair of shoes. (10). This was all in
which was offered to get by for only one year. In addition,
Douglass mentions that the children unable to work in the
field had neither shoes, stockings, jackets, nor trousers, given
to them: their clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts
per year. (10). Regardless of the season, these children were
seen almost naked year round.

Aside from lack of food and materials, sleeping conditions were even worse. No beds were given to slaves. After
6

SECTION 3

Harriet Jacobs: Antebellum slave narrative

Antebellum slave, Harriet Ann Jacobs, captured her life
story in the autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Through first hand experiences, she highlighted the sheer
brutality that slaves received from their masters, before the
American Civil War. Jacobs was born a North Carolina slave,
and when she was only six years old, her mother died. Jacobs
worked for her mothers mistress until she died when Harriet
was twelve years old. Up until that point, Harriet was treated
fairly and her needs were met. However, all of that changed
with the death of her mistress. After her mistress died, Harriet was sent to serve her former mistresss sister and husband. ( Jacobs, 11-16).

to my grandmother,
made him bear this
treatment for many
months. He was a crafty
man, and resorted to
many means to accomplish his purposes.
Sometimes he had
stormy, terrific ways,
that made his victims
tremble; sometimes he
assumed a gentleness
that he thought must
surely subdue. Of the
two, I preferred his
stormy moods, although
they left me trembling.
Image of Harriet Jacobs. (Jacobs).
He tried his utmost to
corrupt the pure principles my grandmother had instilled. He peopled my young

Jacobs spoke of sexual harassment and harsh verbal
treatment she received from her master, starting at the age of
fifteen. In one instance she claims, But I now entered on my
fifteenth yeara sad epoch in the life of a slave girl. My master began to whisper foul words in my ear. Young as I was, I
could not remain ignorant of their import. I tried to treat
them with indifference or contempt. The master's age, my extreme youth, and the fear that his conduct would be reported
7

mind with unclean images, such as only a vile monster could

think of. I turned from him with disgust and hatred. But he
was my master. I was compelled to live under the same roof
with himwhere I saw a
man forty years my senior
daily violating the most sacred commandments of
nature. (Jacobs, 44-45).
Furthermore, instances of
degrading verbal abuse occurred. Jacobs states, He
told me I was his property; that I must be subject to his will in all
things. My soul revolted
against the mean tyranny.
But where could I turn for
protection? No matter
whether the slave girl be
as black as ebony or as
fair as her mistress. In eiCover page of Incidents in the Life of a
ther case, there is no
Slave Girl. (Jacobs).
shadow of law to protect
her from insult, from violence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by fiends
who bear the shape of men (Jacobs, 45).

terms. A slaveholder once told me that he had seen a runaway friend of mine in New York, and that she besought him
to take her back to her master, for she was literally dying of
starvation; that many days she had only one cold potato to
eat, and at other times could get nothing at all. He said he refused to take her, because he knew her master would not
thank him for bringing such a miserable wretch to his house.
He ended by saying to me, This is the punishment she
brought on herself for running away from a kind master.
This whole story was false. I afterwards staid with that friend
in New York, and found her in comfortable circumstances.
She had never thought of such a thing as wishing to go back
to slavery. Many of the slaves believe such stories, and think
it is not worth while to exchange slavery for such a hard kind
of freedom. (Jacobs, 67).

Beyond her own, personal treatment as a slave, Jacobs
documented the brutality suffered by other slaves, in roughly
the same location. Jacobs wrote, He had six hundred slaves,
many of whom he did not know by sight. His extensive plantation was managed by well-paid overseers. There was a jail
and a whipping post on his grounds; and whatever cruelties
were perpetrated there, they passed without comment. He
was so effectually screened by his great wealth that he was
called to no account for his crimes, not even for
murder.Various were the punishments resorted to. A favorite
one was to tie a rope around a man's body, and suspend him
from the ground. A fire was kindled over him, from which
was suspended a piece of fat pork. As this cooked, the scald-

Furthermore, Jacobs uncovered that slave masters created lies about the North, to insure that their slaves would
not attempt to escape. Jacob described one instance in these
8

ing drops of fat continually fell on the bare flesh. (Jacobs,

72).

Due to the self- written, autobiographical nature of the
book, there is very little room for doubt regarding the truth
of these instances. From sexual harassment to brutal physical
abuse, Jacobs provided detailed accounts of slave life during
the antebellum period. One might question Harriet Jacobs
accounts due to the book having been edited and published
by L. Maria Child in 1861. Due to Harriet Jacobs lack of
education, L. Maria Child edited the book for organization
purposes but did not alter any events or stories. Harriet Jacobs wrote the book on her own, after escaping to the North.
(Jacobs, 5-7). With that being said, there is no question that
these events took place, and the face of slavery before the
American Civil War was that of brutality, unfairness, and violations against human rights.

SECTION 4

Dora Franks: Post-bellum slave narrative

Ex-slave, Dora Franks was interviewed in the late 1930s
regarding her time as a slave and her time after emancipation. She begins by saying she does not really know how old
she is but knows that she was old enough to marry just two
years after the end of the Civil War. She explains she was different from the other children growing up because her father
was a white man, who happened to be her master. She calls
him, Marster George Brewer. The fact that she was of mixed
raced caused her to be ridiculed by the other children. However she was allowed entry into the house because of her
mixed race. Franks spent most of her time with an older
woman named Miss Emmaline, who taught her to weave and
spin better than most of the older woman. An event she goes
into detail about where Miss Emmaline had gone with
George Brewer and his wife and left Franks with another
woman is quite striking. Franks says she asked the new
woman for a piece of bread from the kitchen and was struck
by the woman multiple times. Upon the return of Brewer,
they found out what had happened and had the woman
whipped.

Franks goes on to explain that the slaves on her particular plantation did not have weddings, church services, and
were not allowed to visit other plantations. But she mentions
that sometimes the masters would take her with them when
they visited other plantations. She recalls an incident in
which a man named Uncle Alf who had run off to another
plantation during the night to see a woman at another plantation and was caught. He was whipped a hundred times and
sent instantly back into the field. When he finished his work
he ran again and truly escaped this time; they believed he
lived in a cave somewhere around the plantation.

Franks goes on speaking about the war and seeing soldiers passing by and sometimes raiding the plantation. She
talks about the end of the war and how she found out they
were free. Her brother came into the house where they lived
and told them they were free and to be gone from the plantation by morning. She claims there wasnt one slave left on the
plantation after that. Franks describes working in the fields after being freed and hating it because of the heat. She also describes her fear of the Kl Klux Klan but that she wasnt not
10

too worried about them because the KKK knew the workers
at Davis Coxs house were decent blacks. Finally, she ends her
interview by saying that the white folks living among the
black folks is a bad influence because black people dont always know right from wrong. She claims because they do not
have masters to teach them, these white people can be bad
influences. But she ultimately says she is glad slavery is over
because the bible does not say it is right.

is a unique case it is important to look at her experience to

see that not every experience with slavery from the black perspective is as we expect.

Franks, who clearly had a different experience than most
slaves, says, Dem was pretty good days back in slavry
times. The fact that she was a mixed race slave made her
life easier than the other slaves. She was allowed to be in the
house when she wanted, was taken on trips by the master and
his wife and was protected physically by the master. This is
not because her Master George Brewer was a nice slave
owner, as we can see from the two stories Franks describes
about whippings, it was because she was his own blood. At
the end of her interview it almost seems as if she wouldnt
have cared if slavery kept going because it almost didnt affect her. She faced more problems after her emancipation
with field work and the KKK. But she saves herself, slightly,
in the end by saying she is glad slavery is over because the Bible never mentioned it being allowed. Obviously Franks was
someone who truly did not take in the experiences of other
blacks on the plantation. She witnessed multiple whippings,
slaves being chased by nigger hounds and the suppression
of any type of culture for the slaves. As stated earlier, Franks
is a unique case within antebellum slavery who seemed to be
happier as a slave than as a free woman. Yet even though she
11

SECTION 5

Anderson Scales: Post-bellum slave narrative

On May 19th, 1937 in Rockingham County, Miss
Nancy Watkins interviewed ex-slave of North Carolina, Anderson Scales, at the age of 82. Anderson was born to a
slave mother, and to a father with the last name Edwards.
He was first a slave of William Scales, the largest manufacturer of chewing tobacco at that time in Madison, North
Carolina. He lived in Madison for all of his life. As a young
child he was taught good manners and to be of good service.
As her grew older, he was sent to different houses in the
Scales family. He upgraded to sweeping floors, getting firewood, gathering water from the well, and taking out the garbage. Both during and after the war, things began to change,
and so did his jobs.

The war caused an increase in the mail that needed to
be sent from place to place and to reach the soldiers. Anderson Scales was contracted by many white men to be their
mailman, so he traveled by horse for deliveries during the
war up until the 1880s. Railroads and freight trains also
changed the way that the world ran, as they became more
popular during the war for delivering supplies. Anderson

Digital image of Anderson Scales slave narrative.

(WPA, 2010)
12

started his own horse and wagon service to take people to

and from the train stations. This sustained Anderson for
most of the rest of his life, until he handed the business down
to his son-in-law. After the war, his son-in-law turned the
company into an auto-truck hauling business. His son-in-law
also had the opportunity to learn to read and write at a Negro free school, which changed the way that he was able to
leave his life of slavery as an educated young man.

The way that Miss Nancy Watkins relayed Anderson
Scales descriptions of slavery, make it sound as if he almost
enjoyed the ride from slavery to freedom. When he was born
into slavery, he was named by the Scales family, rather than
by his own father of the name Edwards. Anderson then described to Watkins that he taught all of his manners and life
lessons from the Scales family and his various jobs. He almost seems to say that his slavery before the civil war made
him the hardworking man that he is today. In reality, slavery
was much harsher in the south than described by Anderson.
This may be due to the family that he was born into, or it
may have been lost in the translation of the interview. However, the social stigmas of the time are clear through the interviewees writing when it is stated that he lived by the free
white schoolhouse, that was called just the schoolhouse
for the white children (WPA, 2010).

Anderson Scales does not speak of the moment when he
was freed from slavery. His interview tells the story of a man
who already seemed to know that freedom was coming. Anderson Scales took charge of his freedom in America by starting his own business. Starting a business might not feel like
much to us today, but for a man that was born into slavery,
this was a huge feat for both America and mankind. After
the civil war, Anderson Scales says that he lived a life in
which he was respected by both white and colored people
alike (WPA, 2010).

A drinking fountainoutsidethe HalifaxCountyCourthouse in North

CarolinainApril of1938,one year afterAndersonScaleswasinterviewed
byMiss Nancy Watkins. (WPA, 2010)

Anderson Scales ends his interview by stating that the
depression of 1930-1934 did not injure this energetic black
man (WPA, 2010). His story outlines how a slave who
started in a small cabin, now can sleep comfortably on his
own front porch.
13

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