This EGroup is being used as a communication aid by students enrolled in History 3005/5005 at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. We are researching what is apparently a previously lost narrative that was found by Dr. David Cecelski at the Illinois State Historical Library. The narrative is about a slave named Allen Parker who lived in Chowan County, North Carolina from 1838 until his self-emancipation in the 1860's. Our goal as a class is to determine whether or not this is in fact a true slave narrative, while along the way answering several questions we have now, and also any more we might come up with during our research process. Some of these questions are; what does this narrative say about slavery and antebellum history in Chowan County and North Carolina? What other, perhaps original insights does it offer into American history? Ultimately, we hope to turn Parker's memoir into a useful historical text, and make an original contribution to the history of North Carolina.

The full, and soon to be annotated, narrative can be read at our evolving website dedicated to this project at:

http://core.ecu.edu/hist/cecelskid/

Also, the Allen Parker narrative along with most of the other known slave narratives are available online at:

http://www.ibiblio.org/docsouth/neh/neh.html

Please feel free to send an email to the moderator if you are interested in our project or feel you have something that might aid us in our quest. Go Pirates!