Although slave narratives have enjoyed critical attention as literature and autobiography, when presenting them to undergraduates, there is some confusion--usually centering on the dissimilarities between the narratives and traditional autobiography. The narratives are not as linear, not as focused on personal development; the narrators are not as renowned as some national figures. Finally the narratives are polemical or didactic; they argue a point persistently. While the polemical nature of slave narratives must lead to a study of historical context, it should also lead to a study of the popular genres they appropriated. Ex-slaves used the conventions of the spiritual autobiography, the conversion narrative, or the sentimental novel for the following reasons: (1) to tap into a storehouse of formulas which a reading audience already shared; (2) to argue subtextually for their inclusion in the mainstream; (3) to draw the reader into sympathetic relation with themselves before they asserted their sense of difference or individuality through some subversion of expectation. In "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," for instance, Harriet Jacobs appropriates sentimental conventions at the same time that she challenges them to argue against slavery. (TB)