I Was Born a Slave collects the twenty most significant slave narratives and arranges them chronologically in two volumes to form a mini-library of essential black writing. The narratives in this volume include tales of Africa, pirate ships, wild animals, and witches; a slave who had ten owners, and another who led a rebellion that killed fifty-five whites; the kidnapping of a white woman and her rescue by a slave; the nightmarish tortures of the infamous Mr Gooch; the tragicomic experiences of a pair of 'white slaves'; and a story of the 'original Uncle Tom'.