This lesson plan includes excerpts from slave narratives of Stowe's contemporaries, including Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, The Interesting Narrative by Olaudah Equiano, and Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass and My Bondage and My Freedom by Fredrick Douglass. These narrative nonfiction accounts will enhance students' understanding of Stowe's fictionalization; some were even used by the author herself as sources in writing the novel.
Consider Melton McLaurin's Celia: A Slave, which tells the true story of an enslaved woman who killed her abusive master rather than endure repeated rape. This narrative provides a...
