lass Library, and Dana Library at Rutgers University made it possible
for me to identify and locate the wide variety of materials I required
to complete this project. I am particularly grateful to Mary George
and Emily Belcher at Firestone Library for patiently offering assis-
tance, guidance, and direction.

The community I have experienced while teaching and writing at
Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, has made my work both
enjoyable and intellectually stimulating. I am particularly grateful to
Fran Bartkowski, Barbara Foley, Gabriel Miller, and Clement Price
for being welcoming, encouraging about my work, and generous with
their help. I would especially like to acknowledge the students who
participated in the undergraduate "Introduction to African American
Literature" classes I taught during the fall and spring semesters of
1996 and 1997 and the graduate seminar I taught during the spring
semester of 1997. Their interest in African-American literature and
their intellectual curiosity made my own explorations into finding
ways to examine slave narrative writing fun, challenging, and exciting.

During the years in which the ideas for this book were formulated,
given shape, and revised, I benefited from the stimulus, inspiration,
and vision of teachers, fellow students, colleagues, friends, family,
and acquaintances far too numerous to name. Several, however, de-
serve specific mention: David Carroll, Isabelle Kaminski, Marilyn
Campbell, Jane Low, Alessandra Bocco, Jennifer Manlowe, Eileen
Reilly, Julie Armstrong, Jacqueline Ivens, Toni Logue, Laurie Altman,
Carolyn Fox, Freddie Belk, Edward Murray, Scott Murray, and Janice
Bland.

Lastly, I would like to offer my deepest thanks and acknowledgment
to my parents, Ula and Sterling Bland, Sr., for their unceasing love
and constant encouragement. This book, which I hope they like, is
lovingly dedicated to them both.

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