Slave Writings : Comparison and Discussion of Selected Writings.

A207-03: Slave Writings – Comparison & Discussion. |

A207-03: A comparison in the use of the genre of “autobiography” in the slave writings of Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, Robert Wedderburn and Mary Prince. |

Peter J. Moore |

A207-03: A comparison in the use of the genre of “autobiography” in the slave writings of Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, Robert Wedderburn and Mary Prince.

To allow a constructive discussion of the “slave writings”, it is necessary to establish the “terms of reference” that will be used as parameters on which to base the comparison and discussion. The “genre of autobiography” was the preferred means for minorities to voice grievances and relate their own stories of hardship and life experience. The two main “sub-genres” of this main “genre” that are relevant to this discussion are a combination of “Slave Autobiography” and “Spiritual Autobiography”

The “genre of slave autobiography” can be divided further into four sub- categories: - 18th century British slave narrative;

Early 19th century U.S. slave narrative;

Early 19th century escaped-woman-slave narrative;

Hoax slave narrative. (Johnson, A207, Blk 3, Unit 15, p204)

This differentiation is necessary to take into account the shifts in conventions of autobiography and the cultural context in which they were written (McDowell, 1998). The comparison and discussion focuses on a “slave narrative” from each of the first three of these sub-categories; Cugoano – 1787; Wedderburn – 1824 and Prince - 1831.

Mary Prince (1788–c.1834) in her “History”, uses the “genre of autobiography” in an attempt to inform and educate the reader. To raise awareness of the suffering, barbarity and the abject cruelty and abuse experienced not only by her; but translates her own life experiences into a universalized catalogue of ill treatment endured by all, especially female, slaves. She feels it her Christian, and Civil responsibility to act as the voice of all slaves in their fight for freedom and...