“Agonizing Groans of Mothers” and “Slave‐Scarred Veterans”: The Commemoration of Slavery and Emancipation

“A grand sisterhood”: Black American women speakers at the 1893 World’s Congress of Representative Women

“…74 By that time, narratives of sectional reconciliation had produced the popular white memory of slavery as "an inoffensive institution," in which Black Americans had been "faithful, devoted slaves […] who were content with white supremacy." 75 African Americans, meanwhile, deliberated about whether to forget what was considered by some to be a shameful history of enslavement or to advocate for more and more accurate memories of the institution to combat damaging white accounts. 76 Thus, addressing a primarily white immediate audience at the Congress afforded these Black women an opportunity both to counter white narratives and to represent Black memories of enslavement.…”

‘I shall speak out against this and other evils’: African American activism in the British Isles 1865–1903

“…While some scholars have framed 1865 as the end of the slave narrative tradition, other historians such as William Andrews and Frances Foster have highlighted the sheer volume of postbellum writings by formerly enslaved individuals, and their repeated calls for equality in a nation suffering from slavery's brutality. 3 Andrews is one of the few scholars to comprehensively analyze post-Civil War activism and charts the legacy of slavery specifically through slave narratives. Between 1866-1901, fifty-four narratives were published in the United States by formerly enslaved individuals: most of whom were ministers and teachers, with large numbers of women, who published more narratives than in the antebellum period.…”