8 Influential Abolitionist Texts

Topsy (left) and Little Eva, characters from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851–52); lithograph by Louisa Corbaux, 1852.
Louisa Corbaux/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZC4-2974)
One of the most important and useful means that has been employed by abolitionists is the written word. Freepersons across the globe advocated for the abolition of slavery, but perhaps the most inspiring stories have come from slaves themselves, who were self-taught or abounding with determination to learn to read and write from any source possible, as was the case with Frederick Douglass. Such texts have had a profound effect in shaping the majority of the modern world’s perspective against implementing the abhorrent institution of slavery by describing the inhumane cruelty that slaves have suffered in the past. They have also inspired oppressed groups to rise up and fight for equality in the face of discrimination.

8Twelve Years a Slave (1853)

Director Steve McQueen’s powerful film 12 Years a Slave (2013) starred Chiwetel Ejiofor (left) as Solomon Northup, a freeborn black man kidnapped and forced into bondage in 1841. Michael Fassbender (right) played Edwin Epps, Northup’s owner.
© Fox Searchlight Pictures/Everett Collection
Recently popularized by the Steve McQueen film of the same name (2013), Twelve Years a Slave was originally published in 1853 after being dictated by Solomon Northup to a white lawyer and legislator by the name of David Wilson, who maintained to offer “a faithful history of Solomon Northup’s life, as [I] received it from his lips.” The narrative recounts the tragic drugging and kidnapping of Northup, a free Northern black man, into Southern slavery, in which he remained for 12 years in the Louisiana Bayou Boeuf plantation region. He suffered through sadistic owners as well as some “kind” ones, until a Canadian abolitionist, whom he met on his owner’s farm, helped Northup to arrange his escape to his rightful place in the North. After the book’s publication, Northup went on tour around the country to promote his book, which sold over 30,000 copies.

7Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave (1688)

Penned by the first Englishwoman known to have earned a living through her writing (Aphra Behn), Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave was published in 1688, at which time, in the nascent years of abolitionism, it was viewed as a progressive antislavery text. The novel follows an African prince as he is tricked into slavery by “civilized” English slave traders, who thus sell him to an owner in a South American colony of the British. There he’s reunited with his love, who he thought to be dead at the hands of his former African king, and is recognized by his white owner to be of royalty and noble descent. However, acquiring his and his lover’s freedom proves impossible after he is perpetually told that the decision is not up the owner but instead rests on the governor, who is back in England. The plot thus unravels in a tragic and grotesque resolution, leaving the reader questioning the morality as well as the rationality of the slave trade.

6The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789)

Title page from the first edition of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789).
Known as the originator of the slave narrative, Olaudah Equiano published his autobiography in 1789 in order to capture the humiliations suffered by slaves at the hands of their owners as well as to condemn the slave trade as an inhumane institution. Although some recent evidence has called into question whether he was truly born in Africa, as he claims in the text, his words nonetheless captured the brutalities and realism of traveling across the Atlantic on a slave ship and the struggles and luck that go into obtaining one’s freedom. He spent most of his time as a slave on ships, sailing from place to place visiting different cultures and learning the various ways in which slaves were treated, which allowed him to gain insight into the dynamics of the slavery to depict them accurately in his narrative. When published, The Interesting Narrative was widely read and was translated into Dutch, German, and Russian.

5The Liberator (1831–65)

Front page of The Liberator, July 6, 1855.
The Granger Collection, New York
The Liberator, founded by the ardent abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, had a paid circulation of roughly 3,000 in the North. However, its message sprawled across the nation as it was spread by word of mouth or handed down copies to those who couldn’t afford a subscription. Published in Boston, the periodical espoused the need to abolish slavery in America for 35 years, making it the most influential antislavery newspaper in the pre-Civil War era of the United States. It continually challenged reformers to apply the principles put forth in the Declaration of Independence to all people, regardless of the color of their skin. It also praised abolitionism as the only means to end slavery—instead of supporting the idea of African colonization—with the aim of achieving full citizenship for would-be freed slaves, including endowing them with the right to vote. Thus, Garrison’s influence through The Liberator played an indispensible role in gaining emancipation for slaves in America.

4Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave (1847)

William Wells Brown’s Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave was greeted with immediate popularity when published in 1847, being the second most read slave narrative of its time (behind that of Frederick Douglass). His autobiographical narrative exposed the struggles that mixed-race individuals such himself faced (as he was conceived by a white man and an enslaved woman), documented the debased treatment of slaves, and decried the institution itself for forcing slaves to result to deceitful and dishonest measures in order to abet their survival. Also, in an admired detached style, Brown pointed out the hypocrisy of supposed Christian slave-owners and their fierce treatment of their fellow human beings. After gaining his freedom in 1834 and earning acclaim for his slave narrative, Brown was able to tour overseas and became the first African American to publish a novel, play, and travel book.

3Appeal…to the Colored Citizens of the World… (1829)

Frontispiece from the 1830 edition of David Walker’s Appeal…to the Colored Citizens of the World…, first published in 1829.
Distributed to slaves via copies inserted into the pockets of clothes that he sold to sailors heading to the South, David Walker’s Appeal…to the Colored Citizens of the World… caused outrage and fear in slave-owners as he called for slaves to actively fight for their freedom and to rise up and revolt against their owners. He also claimed that America was more of the slaves’ country than the whites’ since it was their blood and toil that had built it from the ground up. His violent language inspired objections by even the most ardent white abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison, and led to legislation being passed that prohibited slaves from learning to read or write. The Appeal was so radical that it may have cost Walker his life, since his body was found, commonly believed to be poisoned, near his shop soon after its publication. Though loaded with the support of violence, Walker’s appeal was widely reprinted after his death and served to illuminate the intensity with which some slaves were ready to combat slavery.


Frederick Douglass.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
This first publication of Frederick Douglass’s often revised autobiography serves as one of the most read primary sources on American slavery today as well as in its own time. It follows Douglass from his early years in life as a slave, noting the fact that he—like most slaves—never knew with certainty whom his father was and that he had only met his mother a handful of times. Throughout the text, Douglass highlights the fact that the sufferings he endured at the hands of slave-owners were no different than those of his fellow slaves, excepting that when he was moved from a plantation to the city, he realized that being a city slave was almost as good as being free in comparison. It was during that time in his life that he came to understand the importance of earning an education and thus spent the rest of his life in pursuit of knowledge, which afforded him the ability to escape to freedom and to become a renowned abolitionist. Once free, he lectured abroad and served as an aide to President Lincoln during the Civil War. For more than a century, his narrative continued to inspire reformers and activists to fight for civil rights for the oppressed in America.

1Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly (1851–52)

Scene from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin showing the body of Uncle Tom, who has been beaten to death by slave owner Simon Legree, and the angels, including Eva, awaiting his presence in heaven.
© Photos.com/Thinkstock
Perhaps the most famous text to come from pre-Civil War America, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published serially in 1851–52 and had a profound effect upon American culture. Some have gone as far as to deem it as one of the causes of the Civil War. Authored by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a passionate abolitionist, the novel sold roughly 300,000 copies in its first year. Its denouncement of slavery fueled the already confrontational spirit between the North and South, who embraced and shunned the novel, respectively. Although the text today has been widely criticized for enforcing unwarranted stereotypes, it is imperative to realize the importance of a book promulgating the need to abolish slavery in such a volatile time in American history. Stowe’s efforts went far in the fight for the abolition of slavery, and her novel is still widely read and remembered today.
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