In this essay I intend to delve deeper into the representation of family in slave narratives, focusing on the account of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave by Frederick Douglas and Harriet Jacobs "Incidents in the Life of a slave." Slave narratives are biographical and autobiographical stories of freedom written or retold by former slaves. Most of them were "told" accounts written with the help of abolitionist publishers between 1830 and 1865. A number of the stories were written entirely by the author and are referred to as genuine autobiographies. The first of more than six thousand extant slave tales was published in 1703. Written primarily for propaganda purposes, the tales served as important weapons in the war against slavery. Slave narratives can be considered a literary genre for a number of reasons. They are united by the common purpose of highlighting the evils of slavery and attacking the concept of black inferiority. In the narratives one can find simple and often dramatic accounts of personal experience, a strong revelation of the character...