A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree "Licence en Langue et Littérature Anglaises"

Résumé,

This work examines the slave protest as an antibody in the struggle for the emancipation of slaves as portrayed in the works of Frederick Douglass and Ernest J. Gaines in the Southern States of the United States of America. It further underlines the sorrows in which African-Americans lived as slaves in America. It shows that it is this painful condition that pushes Blacks to undertake protest as an antibody to resist slave owners' defence for the abolition of slavery. It analyses Black Americans' struggle to free themselves from this devastating evil.

This work is, therefore, construced on the hypothesis that slave protest is inspired by the perpetual torture inflicted on the Blacks by the White slave owners. In this light, resistance constitutes a sensible means in the struggle for the emancipation of slaves. Since Whites could hardly accept slave freedom, Blacks decided to protest and fight for their liberation. Built against the background of New Historicism, this work settles on the note that, the inhuman treatment and perpetual torture inflicted on the black slaves contributed to the slave proest and struggle for emancipation.