User:Micahabresch/sandbox-slavenarratives

Slave narratives represent a significant branch of American travel writing. As John Cox says in Traveling South, "travel was a necessary prelude to the publication of a narrative by a slave, for slavery could not be simultaneously experienced and written." Almost all slave narratives are also travel literature, making slave travel a distinct sub-genre of travel literature. The slaves struggle against the restrictive laws in the south in their efforts to attain freedom in the north.

Frederick Douglass's Narrative is deeply intertwined with his travel experiences, beginning with his travels being entirely at the command of his masters and ending with him traveling when and where he wishes. Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave is a more traditional travel narrative, and he too overcomes the restrictions of law and tradition in the south the escape after he is kidnapped and enslaved. Harriet Jacobs' Incidents includes significant travel that covers a small distance, as she escapes one living situation for a slightly better one, but also later includes her escape from slavery to freedom in the north.