The
slave narrative is a type of literary work that is made up of the written accounts of enslaved
Africans in
Great Britain and
its colonies, including the later
United States,
Canada, and
Caribbean nations. Some six thousand former
slaves from
North America and the Caribbean gave accounts of their lives during the 18th and 19th centuries, with about 150 narratives published as separate books or pamphlets. In the U.S. during the
Great Depression (1930s), more than 2,300 additional oral histories on life during slavery were collected by writers sponsored and published by the
Works Progress Administration (WPA) of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. Most of the 26 audio-recorded interviews are held by the Library of Congress.