The ten works collected in this volume demonstrate how a diverse group of writers challenged the conscience of a nation and laid the foundations of the African American literary tradition by expressing their in anger, pain, sorrow, and courage.

Included in the volume: Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw ; Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano ; The Confessions of Nat Turner ; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass ; Narrative of William W. Brown ; Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb ; Narrative of Sojouner Truth ; Ellen and William Craft's Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom ; Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Narrative of the Life of J. D.Green .