Slave narratives are an important part of African American literature from the very beginning to the present. What is the significance of slave...

Slave
narratives are important pieces of literature in the sense that they tell the story of an
enslaved race. They provide family histories and give people a sense of their culture. They
provide an alternative to the white version of antebellum history, and they allow historians to
see the slaves as individuals rather than as a mass of oppressed people who had the same
experiences no matter where they lived or who owned them.

Slave narratives
also provide a glimpse into slave culture by the people who lived it. One can see how slaves
viewed themselves as well as the whites they interacted with on a daily basis.Slave narratives
may also include events such as violence against slaves or escapes that were not recorded in
other histories. They can also be used to trace one's family history as slave families were
often broken up in slave auctions.

Slave narratives provide a sense of
cultural pride and history to African Americans, as they demonstrate how slaves persevered under
unfavorable conditions. For these reasons, slave narratives have value as literature as well as
history.