In his review of Frederick Douglass’ famous autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Lucius C. Matlock wrote that “slavery is the enemy of literature.”
Paradoxically, however, slavery itself turned out as a “fertile ground for the creation of a new literature, a literature indicating oppression, a literature created by the oppressed.” As Matlock explained, “From the soil of slavery itself have sprung forth some of the most brilliant productions, whose logical levers will ultimately upheave and overthrow the system.”
According to Matlock, African American literature consists of a logical paradox. On the one hand, slavery is logically a condition that prevents slaves from producing literary works. Historically, however, the experience of slavery itself gave rise to the production of African American literature.
A slave narrative is a type of literary genre in African American literature. Slave narratives are written as an autobiographical account of enslaved Africans, which narrates the hardships of slaves and their escape. These memoirs were written by the ex-slaves themselves or collected and recorded in writing by others. Over six thousand such narratives are estimated to exist.