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I Was Born a Slave: An Anthology of Classic Slave Narratives, Volume 1: 1772-1849 PDF

805 Pages·1999·5.694 MB·English
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818-CRP/Slave cvr~vol1_818-CRP/Slave cvr~vol1 2/9/11 12:56 PM Page 1 $21.00 T H E L I B R A RY O F B L A C K A M E R I C A THE LIBRARY OF T H E L I B R A RY O F B L A C K A M E R I C A BLACK AMERICA E R “Some of the most incisive descriptions of slavery came from the U AT pens of those who experienced it firsthand. . . . This anthology of the I R E twenty best slave narratives will be of inestimable value to anyone T LI interested in American history.”—JAMES M. MCPHERSON W / Y R O “Mr. Taylor has brought together very conveniently a mass of rare T IS and fascinating material by slave authors, and his book will surely be a H N of enduring value. We should all be grateful to him.”—HUGH THOMAS s A C I R “In this outstanding collection, Yuval Taylor places before us slave nar- B E M ratives that captured the complexities of this very Peculiar Institution A N and created a powerful literary tradition. . . . No American’s education o A C can be called complete if these works are missing from his understand- RI r F ing. . . . On these pages you will find adventure, ingenious escapes, A n humor (yes, that is here too), and the full, ambiguous range of the human spirit, its darkness and breathtaking triumphs. You will find, in a word, our collective stories as Americans.” a —CHARLES JOHNSON, from his foreword Over 120 autobiographies of ex-slaves were published as books or S pamphlets between the mid-eighteenth and early twentieth cen- VOLUME ONE l turies; all subsequent African American literature is descended a I Was 1772–1849 from these seminal works. I Was Born a Slavecollects the twenty most sig- v nificant slave narratives and arranges them chronologically in two volumes James Albert to form a mini-library of essential black writing. This unprecedented anthol- e Ukawsaw Gronniosaw ogy presents the narratives unabridged, providing each one with helpful Olaudah Equiano introductions and annotations, to make up the most comprehensive volume (Gustavus Vassa) ever assembled on the lives and writings of the slaves. An Anthology Born a of Classic Slave William Grimes The narratives in this volume include tales of Africa, pirate ships, wild ani- Narratives mals, and witches; a slave who had ten owners, and another who led a rebel- Nat Turner lion that killed fifty-five whites; the kidnapping of a white woman and her Charles Ball rescue by a slave; the nightmarish tortures of the infamous Mr. Gooch; the tragicomic experiences of a pair of “white slaves”; and the story of the Moses Roper “original Uncle Tom.” Slave Frederick Douglass YUVAL TAYLOR has been involved in publishing books on African VOLUME ONE Lewis & Milton American history and culture since 1989. He has a master’s degree in 1772–1849 Clarke American Studies and is editor of Lawrence Hill Books, where he directs C(bo. v1e9r1: 7J)a;c Forbe Ldearwicrkence the Library of Black America series. EDITED BY William Wells Brown Douglass Series, The Slave, YUVAL TAYLOR No. 1 (1938–39); casein Josiah Henson tempera on gessoed hard- board; 12 in. x 177⁄8in.; Hampton University An Anthology of Classic Slave Narratives Museum, Hampton, VA Design: Joan Sommers YUVAL TAYLOR EDITED BY Distributed by Independent Publishers Group FOREWORD BY CHARLES JOHNSON 818-CRP/Slave cvr~vol1_818-CRP/Slave cvr~vol1 2/9/11 12:56 PM Page 1 $21.00 T H E L I B R A RY O F B L A C K A M E R I C A THE LIBRARY OF T H E L I B R A RY O F B L A C K A M E R I C A BLACK AMERICA E R “Some of the most incisive descriptions of slavery came from the U AT pens of those who experienced it firsthand. . . . This anthology of the I R E twenty best slave narratives will be of inestimable value to anyone T LI interested in American history.”—JAMES M. MCPHERSON W / Y R O “Mr. Taylor has brought together very conveniently a mass of rare T IS and fascinating material by slave authors, and his book will surely be a H N of enduring value. We should all be grateful to him.”—HUGH THOMAS s A C I R “In this outstanding collection, Yuval Taylor places before us slave nar- B E M ratives that captured the complexities of this very Peculiar Institution A N and created a powerful literary tradition. . . . No American’s education o A C can be called complete if these works are missing from his understand- RI r F ing. . . . On these pages you will find adventure, ingenious escapes, A n humor (yes, that is here too), and the full, ambiguous range of the human spirit, its darkness and breathtaking triumphs. You will find, in a word, our collective stories as Americans.” a —CHARLES JOHNSON, from his foreword Over 120 autobiographies of ex-slaves were published as books or S pamphlets between the mid-eighteenth and early twentieth cen- VOLUME ONE l turies; all subsequent African American literature is descended a I Was 1772–1849 from these seminal works. I Was Born a Slavecollects the twenty most sig- v nificant slave narratives and arranges them chronologically in two volumes James Albert to form a mini-library of essential black writing. This unprecedented anthol- e Ukawsaw Gronniosaw ogy presents the narratives unabridged, providing each one with helpful Olaudah Equiano introductions and annotations, to make up the most comprehensive volume (Gustavus Vassa) ever assembled on the lives and writings of the slaves. An Anthology Born a of Classic Slave William Grimes The narratives in this volume include tales of Africa, pirate ships, wild ani- Narratives mals, and witches; a slave who had ten owners, and another who led a rebel- Nat Turner lion that killed fifty-five whites; the kidnapping of a white woman and her Charles Ball rescue by a slave; the nightmarish tortures of the infamous Mr. Gooch; the tragicomic experiences of a pair of “white slaves”; and the story of the Moses Roper “original Uncle Tom.” Slave Frederick Douglass YUVAL TAYLOR has been involved in publishing books on African VOLUME ONE Lewis & Milton American history and culture since 1989. He has a master’s degree in 1772–1849 Clarke American Studies and is editor of Lawrence Hill Books, where he directs C(bo. v1e9r1: 7J)a;c Forbe Ldearwicrkence the Library of Black America series. EDITED BY William Wells Brown Douglass Series, The Slave, YUVAL TAYLOR No. 1 (1938–39); casein Josiah Henson tempera on gessoed hard- board; 12 in. x 177⁄8in.; Hampton University An Anthology of Classic Slave Narratives Museum, Hampton, VA Design: Joan Sommers YUVAL TAYLOR EDITED BY Distributed by Independent Publishers Group FOREWORD BY CHARLES JOHNSON FM-Slaves_FM-Slaves 2/21/11 4:50 PM Page i I WAS BORN A SLAVE FM-Slaves_FM-Slaves 2/21/11 4:50 PM Page ii FM-Slaves_FM-Slaves 2/21/11 4:50 PM Page iii I Was Born a Slave AN ANTHOLOGY OF CLASSIC SLAVE NARRATIVES VOLUME ONE 1 7 7 0 – 1 8 4 9 EDITED BY Yuval Taylor FOREWORD BY Charles Johnson FM-Slaves_FM-Slaves 2/21/11 4:50 PM Page iv Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data I was born a slave : an anthology of classic slave narratives / edited by Yuval Taylor ; foreword by Charles Johnson. p.    cm. Contents: v. 1. 1772–1849— v. 2. 1849–1866. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-55652-334-3(cloth, v. 1) — ISBN 1-55652-335-1(cloth, v. 2) — ISBN 1-55652-331-9(paper, v. 1) — ISBN 1-55652-332-7(paper, v. 2) 1. Slaves—United States—Biography.  2. Afro-Americans—Biography.  3. Slaves’ writings, American.  I. Taylor, Yuval. E444.I18 1999 920(cid:1).009296073—dc21 [b] 98-42790 CIP © 1999by Yuval Taylor Foreword copyright © Charles Johnson, 1999 All rights reserved First edition Published by Lawrence Hill Books An imprint of Chicago Review Press, Incorporated 814North Franklin Street Chicago, Illinois 60610 ISBN  1-55652-334-3(cloth, vol. 1) 1-55652-335-1(cloth, vol. 2) 1-55652-331-9(paper, vol. 1) 1-55652-332-7(paper, vol. 2) Printed in the United States of America 54321 FM-Slaves_FM-Slaves 2/21/11 4:50 PM Page v In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky—her grand old woods—her fertile fields—her beautiful rivers—her mighty lakes, and star- crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slavehold- ing, robbery and wrong,—when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing, and led to reproach myself that any thing could fall from my lips in praise of such a land. America will not allow her children to love her. She seems bent on compelling those who would be her warmest friends, to be her worst enemies. May God give her repentance, before it is too late, is the ardent prayer of my heart. I will continue to pray, labor and wait, believing that she cannot always be insensible to the dictates of justice, or deaf to the voice of humanity. Frederick Douglass,letter to William Lloyd Garrison, January 1, 1846 If it were not for the stripes on my back which were made while I was a slave, I would in my will, leave my skin a legacy to the government, desiring that it might be taken off and made into parchment, and then bind the constitution of glorious happy and freeAmerica. Let the skin of an American slave, bind the charter of American Liberty. William Grimes,Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave,1824 The author . . . sends out this history—presenting as it were his own body, with the marks and scars of the tender mercies of slave drivers upon it . . . Austin Steward,Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman,1857 Hot weather brings out snakes and slaveholders, and I like one class of the venomous creatures as little as I do the other. What a comfort it is, to be free to say so! HarrietJacobs,Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, 1861 FM-Slaves_FM-Slaves 2/21/11 4:50 PM Page vi FM-Slaves_FM-Slaves 2/21/11 4:50 PM Page vii C O N T E N T S volume one: 1770–1849 Foreword   ix Introduction   xv James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince 1 Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa) The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African 29 William Grimes Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave 181 Nat Turner The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Va. 235 Charles Ball Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, A Black Man, Who Lived Forty Years in Maryland, South Carolina and Georgia as a Slave 259 Moses Roper A Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper, from American Slavery 487 Frederick Douglass Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave 523 FM-Slaves_FM-Slaves 2/21/11 4:50 PM Page viii viii Contents Lewis & Milton Clarke Narratives of the Sufferings of Lewis and Milton Clarke, Sons of a Soldier of the Revolution, During a Captivity of More than Twenty Years Among the Slaveholders of Kentucky 601 William Wells Brown Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave 673 Josiah Henson The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada 719 Bibliography 757

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