Introduction

The history of slavery testifies not only to the economic benefits it provides the enslavers, but also to the credence that certain people are innately inferior to others. Whether it is chattel slavery—absolute ownership of a person—or indentured servitude with the promise of eventual freedom, slavery has occurred in some form in every part of the inhabited world. Literature about slavery reveals the physical, emotional, and spiritual legacy left by this institution on both individuals and societies.

Conditions Under Slavery

The conditions a slave must endure are typically harsh and oppressive, resulting from the belief that the slave belongs to a group of people that are inferior by birth or circumstance. Many novels about slavery expose its inhumane nature and the squalid conditions in which slaves are forced to suffer. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) to draw attention to such conditions in the...