The Great Escapes: Four Slave Narratives

by Daphne A. Brooks (Editor), Jeffrey Gonda, George Stade (Editor)

The Great Escapes: Four Slave Narratives is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series. It contains:
-Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave (1848)
-Narrative of Henry Box Brown (1849)
-Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown (1851)
-Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; Or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery (1860)

Genres: Classics, History, Nonfiction, Biography, American History

328 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2007

About the author

Daphne A. Brooks is author of Jeff Buckley’s Grace and Bodies in Dissent, winner of the Errol Hill Award for outstanding scholarship in African American performance studies. The William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of African American Studies and Professor of Theater Studies, American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University, Brooks has written liner notes to accompany the recordings of Aretha Franklin, Tammi Terrell, and Prince, as well as stories for the New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, and Pitchfork.

Reviews

[Erwin Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sentimentality that we as a modern people tend to give to the darkers sides of our collective history does us a geat disservice. If those who lived through such inhuman times and lived to write about it can do so with such clearity. It's somewhat disrespectful to alow sentimental feelings of shame, guilt or ignorance stop us from reading as much of this not so distant historical truth as time alows. I belive that when you accept the events of our nations past as facts you can create a sober progressive future.

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

3-77, 309-20
So interesting!! If I ever get the chance I want to read the rest of the escape stories since we only read 1/4 for the class.
Really eye-opening as to what the life of a slave looked like if they didn't live/work on a plantation as well as what the slave trade looked like in the interior of the United States (how slaves got from the Northern to the Southern states, and how they got further west).
Also interesting how slaves viewed freedom (compared to leaving their family etc.)

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The star ratings seem like a trivial way to describe the impact of certain books. This isn't a book for smiley face emojis or thumbs up. The five stars are for the value in reading this --- painful and uplifting and encouraging and discouraging. Definitely wish I'd read even one of these stories when learning about the Civil War when I was growing up.

[Mario · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of narratives obliterates any and all of the rationalizations slave-holders cooked up to justify what they were doing. Anecdotes paint a more descriptive picture than statistics, and these four do more to expose the evil of slavery than any "big picture" historical account ever could.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a very moving book. A must read. I didn't realize how little I actually know about slavery until I read this book. I only knew what I learned in school and quite frankly, that was very generalized and glossed over. I plan to read more firsthand accounts.

[Jeni Enjaian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book falls neatly into the now nearly classic genre of slave narratives. (With those two words also being in the title, it would be a problem if it did not.) This book is obviously propagandistic, having first been published as a piece of abolitionist literature. (I am making an easy assumption here. I do not off the top of my head know the exact provenance of this particular piece of literature.) Normally, this type of propaganda would make me instantly dislike a work. This book serves a secondary purpose as an excellent piece of primary evidence for the historiography of the time period. That being said I do have a couple points of critique. One, I do not understand why there are two similar but distinct Henry "Box" Brown stories sandwiched between two other unrelated narratives. The compiler of the original work makes no effort at explaining why two such stories were included. Two, the distinctly preachy nature of each narrative is quite the turn off make it difficult to finish the work.
I recommend this book for all interested in studying the time period and to those interested in reading through the classics.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed historical title about the authors of the various slave narratives and the methods they used for freedom. Definitely a must read for anyone who is interested in the time period in which these tales were written.

[Amanda Erdman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved these stories but the format and the publishing was a little confusing. Many parts repeat.

[ػᶈᶏϾӗ]

The first two of these were really mind-blowing. We need to read more than Douglass or occasionally Harriet Jacobs.