Slave Narrative- Primary Sources

My primary source search actually helped me a lot in revising a few of my searches for secondary sources. After examining a number of texts I felt like I knew a bit more about the genre and it felt easier to weed through the numerous journals on the subject.

Danielle Morgan, a professor at SCU, was an immense help to identifying crucial texts to this genre as she has expertise in it. I went through the five primary sources she recommended as being central to the slave narrative genre and found good information for all of them.
She also linked me to the incredibly comprehensive database of slave narratives at the University of North Carolina. It has hundreds of slave narratives in their full text, while also linking to various journal entries and articles about many things including the autobiographies themselves, the genre as a whole, or a bit of historical information.
The way this sight was laid out was interesting to look at physical as I could see the heavy concentration of when the majority of these narratives were written in the mid 1800s. Some begin as early 1740 and there is information until the 1900s on the genre but this is a relatively short time span for literature. The genre never saw much evolvement or change because most of the prominent pieces were all done at around the same time and thus many authors shared experiences.
There is still a wide sense of variety in slave narratives but not because of an evolving country. This genre is concentrated in a certain time period so it is fascinating to look at how experiences of slaves differ.
Another thing that the primary sources prompted me to look for was the aid or editing of white abolitionists in the publications of these works. It was often white abolitionists who helped these slaves become free and it was there help after the fact for that got these stories into the world.