Passing as autobiography: James Weldon Johnson's 'The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man.'

23. Ward's groveling dedication of his Autobiography "To Her Grace the Duchess of Sutherland," replete with statements like "I cannot address your Grace as an equal" even as he proclaims his inability to "give flattering titles, or employ the language of adulation" (i), exemplifies the tone of much of this travel writing, whereby the fugitive slave is kept in a perpetual state of gratitude and servility to white patrons, even though that attitude of servility may itself become a trope necessary for the gaining of access to a wide audience.

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