Read it: "Journals of 2 Ex-Slaves Draw Vivid Portraits"
by Randy Kennedy
New York Times: published June 14, 2004
This is absolutely wonderful. The story of these two journals is a tribute and a humbling reminder of the persistence of truth in the face of all opppression and all historical decay. I wonder exactly what Prof. Blight's smile (after admitting he didn't take the journals seriously at first) acknowledges. And what a tribute to Harper's to be the material from which one of the slaves learned (in defiance of racist laws) to read. Finally, it makes me think of an amazing dissertation line of inquiry: to study the influence of the Bible by tracing its presence in narratives (oral and written) of liberation and resistance. What does it mean to collect, acknowledge, and analyze as a corpus of biblical interpretation the various ways in which people in oppressive conditions have cited and relied upon biblical passages in telling their stories and resisting destruction?
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I can't endorse enough the Times's observation that these represent a major contribution to an ongoing debate about to what extent slaves emancipated themselves---that is, they took advantage the disruptions brought about by the Civil War by fleeing from bondage, before the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. This is really huge. Those interested in these topics might want to read Blight's RACE AND REUNION and (I think even more relatedly) Steven Hahn's Pulitzer- and Bancroft Prize-winning A NATION UNDER OUR FEET.
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