ON THE BEGINNINGS OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERARY TRADITION: CRIMINAL CONFESSIONS OF THE 18 <sup>th</sup> CENTURY AND THE MAKING OF BLACK AMERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Black American literary history begins with the autobiographical narratives - travel narratives, stories about captivity, spiritual autobiographies, criminal confessions. Dying criminal confessions written down by white amanuenses, became a subgenre in the 18 <sup>th</sup> century being a part of the spiritual autobiographies. The confessions of Nat Turner (1831) became the best known example of the genre and the source of inspiration for W. Styron's masterpiece The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967) which influenced significantly contemporary African American prose.