Canadian Slave Narratives

Baquaqua, Mahommah Gardo. An Interesting Narrative. Biography of Mahommah G. Baquaqua, A Native of Zoogoo, In the Interior of Africa (A Convert to Christianity.) With a Description of That Part of the World; Including the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants. Detroit, 1854.

Bibb, Henry. Narratives of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself. New-York: n.p., 1849.

Brown, Paola. Address Intended to Be Delivered in the City Hall, Hamilton, February 7, 1851, on the Subject of Slavery. Hamilton: Printed for the Author, 1851.

Clarke, Lewis, and Milton Clark. Narratives of the Sufferings of Lewis and Milton Clarke, Sons of a Soldier of the Revolution, during a Captivity of More than Twenty Years among the Slave-Holders of Kentucky, One of the So Called Christian States of America. Boston: B.Marsh, 1846. 

Drew, Benjamin, ed. The Refugee; or The Narrative of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. Related by Themselves. Boston: John P. Jewett, 1856.

Henson, Jim. Broken Shackles. Ed. Glenelg. [pseud. of John Frost, Jr.] Owen Sound, Ont.: n.p., 1889. Rpt. as Broken Shackles: Old Man Henson from Slavery to Freedom. Ed. Peter Meyler. Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2001.

Henson, Josiah. Life of Josiah Henson, Formely a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, Narrated by Himself. Boston: A.D. Phelps, 1849.

Henson, Josiah. Truth Stranger than Fiction. Father Henson’s Story of His Own Life. Boston: John P. Jewett, 1858.

Henson, Josiah. Uncle Tom’s Story of His Life. An Autobiography of Rev. Josiah Henson (Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom”). Ed. John Lobb, London: Christian Age Office, 1876.

Howe, Samuel Gridley, comp. The Refugee from Slavery in Canada West: Report to the Freedmen’s Inquiry Commision. Boston: Wright and Potter, 1864

Johnson, William H.H. The Horrors of Slavery. Vancouver: n.p., 1901.

Lewis, Israel. Crisis in North America! Slavery, War, Balance of Power, and Oregon. Montreal: Harrison Printer, 1846.

Loguen, Jermain Wesley. The Rev. J.W. Loguen, As a Slave and As a Freeman: A Narrative of Real Life. Syracuse, N.Y.: J.G.K. Truair & Company, 1859.

Robertson, John William. The Book of the Bible Against Slavery. Halifax, N.S.: John William Robertson, 1854.

Roper, Moses. A Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper, from American Slavery with an Appendix Containing a List of Places Visited by the Author in Great Britain and Ireland and the British Isles, and Other Matter. London: Darton, Harvey, and Darton, 1838.

Smallwood, Thomas. A Narrative of Thomas Smallwood (Coloured Man). Toronto: [n.p.], 1851.

Steward, [Theophilus] Austin. Twenty-Two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman; Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, while President of Wilberforce Colony. Rochester, N.Y.: Alling & Cory, 1872.

Still, William, comp. The Underground Rail Road. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1872.

Troy, William. Hair-Breadth Escapes from Slavery to Freedom. Manchester, Eng.: W. Bremner, 1861.

Ward, Samuel. Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro: His Anti-Slavery Labors in the United-States, Canada, and England. London: John Snow, 1855.

Wormeny, Lavina. “Narrative of the Escape of a Poor Negro Woman from Slavery.” 1861.

 

This list has been adapted from George Elliott Clarke, Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature  (University of Toronto P, 2012), 22.