Читать книгу Benjamin Drew. The Refugee. Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada онлайн

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Frederick Black rightly expresses that “[m]uch of the value of The Refugee derives from its inclusion of the testimony of many ex-slaves who would have remained unknown in American circles but for Drew’s book. In addition, information is presented on a fascinating variety of unique types of personalities and experiences” (284). Black’s reference to the visibility of the fugitives’ voices and experiences couches Drew’s collection within the frame of slave narratives but with a distinct touch. Certainly, the fact that these cited critics point to the spoken testimonies places A North-Side View of Slavery: The Refugee, or the Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada in a singular position within the canon of slave narratives as they have been studied. In fact, the heterogeneous cross-border nature of the collection problematizes its inclusion in the canon of slave narratives. In this respect, George Elliott Clarke’s groundbreaking article “‘This is No Hearsay’: Reading the Canadian Slave Narratives” is fundamental to keep on conceptualizing and establishing a Canadian slave narrative tradition. Clarke argues against the Americanness of the genre and claims that those critics who have considered the slave narratives as solely American, blatantly omit other texts about captivity and enslavement that would prove them wrong. As an example, he refers to Henry Louis Gates’s appropriation of these narratives and his authorized statement that “the African person’s enslavement in the New World” are represented by the “black slaves in the United States,” which leads to the acceptance, Clarke laments, that “the African itself is conflated with American” (9).