Among the earliest published literature by African Americans were

Among the earliest published literature by African Americans were slave narratives—autobiographical accounts of the lives of slaves who lived primarily in the American South in the early to mid-1800s. The themes addressed in these accounts, which consist of letters, notes, or a diary, frequently included escapes, slave auctions, interactions with plantation owners and abolitionists, and the forced separation of family members, often parents and children. Some of the best known slave narratives were written by Josiah Henson and Frederick Douglass. In the last three decades, a renewed awareness of the lives of enslaved African Americans has prompted a wave of novels and biographies, sometimes called “neo-slave narratives,” in which modern writers such as Toni Morrison and Octavia Butler offer a historical or fictional representation of the lives of slaves.

1. According to the passage, each of the following could be described as a slave narrative EXCEPT:

A. an autobiography by a free-born African American man who lived in New Orleans in the 1830s.
B. personal papers of African American field hands who were enslaved in Alabama.
C. an account of two sisters being auctioned to different plantation owners in rural Georgia.
D. a letter smuggled to an escaped slave from her brother, a slave in South Carolina.
E. the diary of a Mississippi slave who was captured while attempting to escape.


2. The author’s description of the characteristics of a slave narrative suggests which of the following conclusions?

A. The work of abolitionists in the northern states helped bring about the publication of slave narratives.
B. All of the narratives published in the early to mid-1800s were written by slaves living in southern states.
C. Most slave narratives were not published until over a century after they were written.
D. In the mid-1900s, fewer people knew about slave narratives than did people in the late 1900s.
E. The work of neo-slave narratives such as those by Butler and Morrison has helped to bring attention to older narratives by other writers.


3. What distinction(s) does the author make between slave narratives and neo-slave narratives?

I. No neo-slave narratives were published in the early to mid-1800s.
II. Neo-slave narratives are written primarily by women, while most slave narratives were written by men.
III. Some neo-slave narratives are fictional, but all slave narratives are firsthand accounts.

A. I Only
B. II Only
C. III Only
D. I and II Only
E. II and III Only