Influential Tar Heel Slave Narratives

Slave narratives' mission was to convert the hearts and minds of readers so they would become supportive of the anti-slavery cause. As the narratives are often dismissed as "anti-slavery propaganda", presenter Laurel C. Sneed will share what research has revealed about their veracity. Delving into three courageous African American Tar Heels who escaped to freedom to author slave narratives (Harriet Jacobs, of Edenton; Moses Roper, of Caswell County; and William H. Singleton, of New Bern) Ms. Sneed will explain how these three slave narrative authors left their mark on the North American Slave Narrative Literary Tradition alongside the book "12 Years a Slave" by Solomon Northup, now a highly acclaimed film of the same name, and how it compares to these three Tar Heel narratives. Co-sponsored by the North Carolina Humanities Council and the Friends of the Library.