This learning resource reproduces unedited, verbatim extracts from the original autobiographies, histories, narratives, speeches, letters, and essays written by nineteenth-century African American freedom-fighters. Readers are advised that the writings reproduced here include detailed descriptions of the ‘traumatic life events’ experienced by enslaved people of all ages and genders while living in white-owned and white-managed enslaved labour camps in the United States. Readers are advised that this content may be re-traumatising as per the definition provided by Janice Carello and Lisa D. Butler:
"Retraumatization, which refers to the triggering or reactivation of trauma-related symptoms originating in earlier traumatic life events, is a clear risk for those confronted with new traumatic material or cues reminiscent of an earlier adverse event."
Janice Carello and Lisa D. Butler, ‘Potentially Perilous Pedagogies: Teaching Trauma is Not the Same as Trauma-Informed Teaching,’ Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 15 (2014): 153-168.