Slave Narratives

by William L. Andrews

  745.20 Bishop Paine] Daniel A. Payne (1811–93), a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

  746.5 LINDA BRENT] Pseudonym used by Harriet Jacobs.

  751.8 My father] Elijah Jacobs (died c. 1826).

  751.22 William] John S. Jacobs (1815?—1875), who published his own narrative, “A True Tale of Slavery,” in The Leisure Hour: A Family Journal of Instruction and Recreation, a London magazine, in 1861.

  751.24 maternal grandmother] Molly Horniblow (c. 1771–1853).

  752.18 Benjamin] Joseph Horniblow.

  753.2 my mother] Deliah Horniblow (1797?-c. 1819).

  753.4 My mother’s mistress] Margaret Horniblow (1797–1825).

  754.11–12 her sister’s daughter] Mary Matilda Norcom (b. 1822).

  754.14–16 “Thou shalt . . . unto them.”] Mark 12:31; Matthew 7:12.

  754.34–35 DR. FLINT . . . the sister] Dr. James Norcom (1778–1850); Mary Matilda Horniblow Norcom (1794–1868).

  758.12 Aunt Nancy] Betty Horniblow (1794?-1841).

  763.40 young master Nicholas] James Norcom Jr. (b. 1811).

  771.29 uncle Phillip] Mark Jacobs (c. 1800–58).

  781.31 “full of . . . uncleanness.”] Matthew 23:27.

  782.32 “Not my . . . O Lord!”] Cf. Luke 22:42.

  783.4–7 “Where laughter . . . hell.”] Byron, “The Lament of Tasso,” iv.7–10.

  787.29 Young Mr. Flint] James Norcom Jr.

  790.35–36 “made of . . . men!”] Acts 17:26.

  795.35 “like angels’ . . . between.”] Thomas Campbell (1777–1844), “Pleasures of Hope” (1799).

  797.31–33 “The poor . . . gone!”] William Mason (1724–97), Elfrida (1751).

  801.19 Mr. Sands] Samuel Tredwell Sawyer (1800–65), an attorney in Edenton who served in the North Carolina House of Representatives, 1829–32, and in the United States House of Representatives, 1837–39.

  807.13 my babe] Joseph Jacobs (born c. 1829).

  814.34–36 “Servants . . . Christ.”] Ephesians 6:5.

  820.37 “South-Side View of Slavery,”] A South-Side View of Slavery; or, Three Months in the South in 1854 (1854), a defense of slavery written by Boston minister Nehemiah Adams (1806–78).

  823.25 new-born . . . girl] Louisa Matilda Jacobs (1833–1917).

  834.23 Miss Fanny] Hannah Pritchard (d. 1838).

  836.16–19 “There . . . master.”] Cf. Job 3:17–19.

  838.14 young Mrs. Flint] Penelope Hoskins Norcom (1812–43), wife of James Norcom Jr.

  844.32–33 “Give me . . . death,”] Patrick Henry (1736–99), in a speech in the Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775.

  853.34 “Home, sweet home.”] Song (1823) by John Howard Payne (1791–1852).

  859.34 pent] Sloping.

  867.6–11 Senator Brown . . . slave!”] Albert Gallatin Brown (1813–80) served as a Democratic senator from Mississippi, 1854–61, and made these remarks on February 24, 1854, during a debate on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.

  867.30 Thompsonian doctor] See note 419.23 in this volume.

  876.11–12 ‘where the . . . rest.’] Cf. Job 3:17.

  880.4 Astor House] A New York City hotel.

  886.13 Emily Flint] Mary Matilda Norcom (b. 1822).

  905.8 a levy] Twelve and a half cents.

  905.10 Jeremiah Durham] Durham was a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

  910.21–22 Mrs. Hobbs] Mary Bonner Blount Tredwell (1808–69), the wife of James Iredell Tredwell (1799–1846), a first cousin of Samuel Tredwell Sawyer (“Mr. Sands”).

  913.11 Mrs. Bruce] Mary Stace Willis (c. 1816–45), wife of Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–67), a poet, journalist, and magazine editor.

  913.29 her lovely babe] Imogen Willis (b. 1842).

  924.5–6 Judge Vanderpool and Lawyer Hopper] Arent Van der Poel (1799–1870), a Superior Court judge and former congressman; John Hopper (1815–64), a Quaker attorney involved in the protection of fugitive slaves.

  928.16 Hon. Miss Murray] Amelia Matilda Murray (1795–1884) favorably described American slavery in Letters from the United States, Cuba and Canada (1856).

  930.14–15 “‘Come . . . spy.’ ”] Mary Howitt (1799–1888), “The Spider and the Fly.”

  930.34–35 chains . . . justice] In 1851 and 1854 chains were placed around the court house in Boston to help prevent the rescue of fugitive slaves being held there.

  932.27–28 Isaac and Amy Post] Isaac Post (1798–1872) and Amy Post (1802–89) were friends of Frederick Douglass who frequently sheltered fugitive slaves; Amy Post was also an early activist in the woman’s rights movement.

  933.17–18 new Mrs. Bruce] Cornelia Grinnell Willis (1825–1904).

  933.32–33 “short . . . poor.”] Thomas Gray (1716–71), “Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard” (1751).

  933.36 Zion’s church] A mass meeting was held at the Zion Chapel Street Church on October 1, 1850, to protest the arrest of James Hamlet under the new Fugitive Slave Law. The meeting raised $800 to buy his freedom, and on October 5 he returned to the city.

  937.34 wife of a senator] Jacobs was probably sheltered in New Bedford, Massachusetts, by Joseph and Sarah Russell Grinnell, the uncle and aunt of Cornelia Grinnell Willis. Joseph Grinnell had been a Whig member of the House of Representatives from 1843 to 1851.

  940.24 Mr. Dodge] Daniel Messmore.

  941.39–40 ‘Proclaim . . . bound’] Isaiah 61:1.

  942–3 John Mitchell] An Irish nationalist, Mitchel (1815–75) was convicted of treason in 1848 and sentenced to 14 years transportation. In 1853 he escaped from Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and went to New York, where he began publishing The Citizen, a proslavery newspaper, in January 1854.

  942.7–8 “Oppression . . . mad;”] Ecclesiastes 7:7.

  944.25–26 “where . . . rest.”] Job 3:17.

  NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF J. D. GREEN

  979–7–10 “Ah, whither . . . complaint.”] From a hymn by Charles Wesley (1707–88) included in a later edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, first published in 1707 by Isaac Watts.

  981.26 Stephen . . . Holy Ghost] See Acts 7:55.

  986.22–23 song of deliverance,] See pp. 996–97 in this volume.

  989.31–32 SPEECH . . . STEPHENS] Although Stephens did speak and vote against secession in the January 1861 Georgia Convention, the speech printed in Narrative of the Life of J. D. Green is a forgery that first appeared in The Rebuke of Secession Doctrines by Southern Statesmen, published in 1863 by the Union League of Philadelphia.

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  1. Herman Melville, Typee, Omoo, Mardi (1982)

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  13. Henry James, Novels 1871–1880 (1983)

  14. Henry Adams, Novels, Mont Saint Michel, The Education (1983)

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  49. Willa Cather, Later Novels (1990)

  50. Ulysses S. Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters (1990)

  51. William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs (1990)

  52. Washington Irving, Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveller, The Alhambra (1991)

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  76. Thomas Paine, Collected Writings (1995)

  77. Reporting World War II: American Journalism 1938–1944 (1995)

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  132. John Steinbeck, N
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  133. Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, Dodsworth (2002)

  134. Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky, Let It Come Down, The Spider’s House (2002)

  135. Paul Bowles, Collected Stories & Later Writings (2002)

  136. Kate Chopin, Complete Novels & Stories {2002)

  137. Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1941–1963 (2003)

  138. Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1963–1973 (2003)

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  152. Kaufman & Co., Broadway Comedies (2004)

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  155. H. P. Lovecraft, Tales (2005)

  156. Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Little Men, Jo’s Boys (2005)

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  159. James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, A Death in the Family (2005)

  160. James Agee, Film Writing & Selected Journalism (2005)

  161. Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Tears Before the Mast & Other Voyages (2005)

  162. Henry James, Novels 1901–1902 (2006)

  163. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (2006)

  164. William Faulkner, Novels 1926–1929 (2006)

  165. Philip Roth, Novels 1973–1977 (2006)

  166. American Speeches: Part One (2006)

  167. American Speeches: Part Two (2006)

  168. Hart Crane, Complete Poems & Selected Letters (2006)

  169. Saul Bellow, Novels 1956–1964 (2007)

  170. John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley and Later Novels (2007)

  171. Capt. John Smith, Writings with Other Narratives (2007)