American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

Perhaps the best slave narrative, and certainly my favorite, INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL by Harriet Jacobs hits to the heart of the experience of slavery for women and has some of the most intense moments in the genre.

This episode contains my thoughts on the excellent slave narrative by William and Ellen Craft, detailing their escape from slavery and Georgia and how they hacked the color line and the unwritten rules of slavery. A brilliant work of resistance.

No Robert A. Heinlein book club would be complete without the 1947 story "Water is for Washing". I almost forgot about it and probably will again soon.

This episode includes my review of Robert A. Heinlein's short mystery story "They Do It With Mirrors." While it is not exceptional as a locked room mystery, it does reflect on Heinlein's sexual politics.

My review of the narrative of the life of Sojourner Truth, one of the more unique slave narratives of this era. A little less about slavery itself and more about the development of a religious revival, a new name, and a mission.

We explore another excellent slave narrative with the work of Henry Bibb, whose narrative explores the trauma of being married in slavery and the difficult choices people need to make while being married in a system rooted in sexual violence.

As we come close to wrapping up our look at Heinlein's 1947 works, we look at a short and not so significant story showing Heinlein trying to define courage. It is called "No Band Playing, No Flags Flying" and its a bit odd.

Frederick Douglass' amazing slave narrative probably does not need much of an introduction. Few works deconstruct all the myths of the Old South so efficiently.

While this is not quite a slave narrative, "The Confessions of Nat Turner" is testimony of one of the most famous American slaves (although the case can be made that he had already freed himself). While most slave narratives were weaponized in the anti-slavery struggle, this document was weaponized to justify strengthening the institution of slavery in the Antebellum South.

"Space Jockey" is another great science fiction story by Heinlein from 1947 published in the Saturday Evening Post. At the same time it is horribly quaint and seems a bit more like fantasy than science fiction. Someone moving from the gig economy to full time family-supporting employment? Not in this universe.