Narrative of the Life of Henry Bibb

The narrative of the life of Henry Bibb begins with his birth in Kentucky in May of 1815. Bibb develops a knack for running away while in his youth and would remain notorious in the art of escape throughout his life. Bibb decides early on in life that he "must forsake friends and neighbors, wife and child, or consent to live and die a slave." At the age of twenty, Bibb begins a life of continual escape and pursuit when he flees to the North in 1835.

Instead of remaining outside the panorama of slavery, Bibb decides to return to Kentucky in an attempt to rescue his wife and daughter. During the process, Bibb is captured temporarily just before making another escape and return Northward. He does not remain there for very long and returns once again to attempt to gain his family. While in hiding at his mother's house, Bibb is given up by a young slave girl. This action causes his owner to at once take Bibb, his wife, and daughter to New Orleans to be sold. In New Orleans, after many months of waiting, Bibb and his family are sold to a Deacon who "was far more like what the people call devil, than he was like a deacon."

While at his new home, Bibb would run away two more times with each outcome ending in his recapture. Due to his flighty nature, Bibb is sold to a group of gamblers in 1840. The gamblers take a liking to Bibb and attempt to purchase his family, but the Deacon refuses any offer to sell Bibb's wife. That would be the last time Bibb sees his wife and child.

The gamblers soon choose to sell Bibb to an Indian. During his stay with the Indians, Bibb concludes, "All things considered, if I must be a slave, I had by far, rather be a slave to an Indian than a slave to a white man, from the experience I have had from both." This Indian master would soon die, allowing Bibb the opportunity to once again steal away to the North. The outcome of his journey is a success and he decides to attempt a career at public speaking.

One final trip to Kentucky is afforded in order to learn the whereabouts of his family. Bibb discovers that his wife, "was living in a state of adultery with her master," and he considers their relations dissolved from then on. In the final events of the narrative, Bibb remarries and resolves to spend his days traveling to advance the anti-slavery cause.

Bibb's narrative provides priceless commentary on the religion, customs, and condition of America during the early to mid-1800s. The tone of Bibb's narrative is pocked with desperation and occasional angst. The style of the narrative is reminiscent of the works of Frederick Douglass as well as other slave authors. Bibb makes use of common stylistic traits, such as directly addressing the reader and the implementation of the travel narrative. While reading the narrative of Henry Bibb, the reader is presented with an effective argument against slavery through the use of religion and the depictions of the effects it placed on him and his contemporaries. Henry Bibb embodies a man who fights for liberty and promotes equality between two diverging races.