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Author : William L. Andrews,Regina E. Mason Publisher : Oxford University Press Page : 192 pages File Size : 45,5 Mb Release : 2008-07-28 Category : History ISBN : 0199711143
Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave by William L. Andrews,Regina E. Mason Pdf
Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave is the first fugitive slave narrative in American history. Because Grimes wrote and published his narrative on his own, without deference to white editors, publishers, or sponsors, his Life has an immediacy, candor, and no-holds-barred realism unparalleled in the famous antebellum slave narratives of the period. This edition of Grimes's autobiography represents a historic partnership between noted scholar of the African American slave narrative, William L. Andrews, and Regina Mason, Grimes's great-great-great-granddaughter. Their extensive historical and genealogical research has produced an authoritative, copiously annotated text that features pages from an original Grimes family Bible, transcriptions of the 1824 correspondence that set the terms for the author's self-purchase in Connecticut (nine years after his escape from Savannah, Georgia), and many other striking images that invoke the life and times of William Grimes.
Life of William Grimes The Runaway Slave A Slave Narrative True Stories of Slavery in the United States Wiliam Grimes (1784--August 20, 1865) was the author of what is considered the first narrative of an American ex-slave, Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, published in 1825, with a second edition published in 1855. Grimes was born into slavery in King George County, Virginia, in 1784. His father was Benjamin Grymes, a wealthy plantation owner; Grimes' mother was a slave on a neighboring plantation. During his years of slavery, Grimes was owned by at least ten different masters, in the States of Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia. He worked as a house servant, valet, field worker, stable boy, and coachman. In 1814, at the age of 30, Grimes escaped from slavery by stowing away on a ship that sailed from Savannah, Georgia to New York City. Doct. Hawes, aforementioned, was present at the time I was whipped on account of the coffee, and advised my master not to whip me any more, as he said he thought I could not bear it much longer. He was my master's son in-law, and a member of Congress, and married my master's eldest daughter. He did not whip me any more at that time, after the advice of the Doctor. Oftentimes, my mistress would have me make the coffee in the dining room, before her. At such times, Patty had no opportunity for putting in the drugs, and the coffee was then good. I was satisfied in my own mind, that (as she was the overseer of the house, and her husband of the plantation, there being about ten or fifteen servants about the house, and no one of them allowed to interfere with this business in which I was employed) that it must be through her machinations which she employed to injure me, and get me severely flogged. I remained on the plantation about two years, under a black overseer, by the name of Voluntine, who punished me repeatedly, to make me perform more labour than the rest of the boys. My master then procured another overseer, a white man, by the name of Coleman Thead; he treated us somewhat better than old Voluntine, but he was very severe, flogged me severely several times, for almost nothing. The overseers have an unlimited controul over the slaves on the plantation, and exercise their authority in the most tyranical manner. I was one day at work on the plantation, with nothing on but my shirt, when the overseer, Thead, came to me, threatening to whip me, and caught hold of me for that purpose.
Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave. Written by Himself by William Grimes Pdf
William Grimes (1784-1865) was the son of Benjamin Grymes, the rich owner of a plantation in King James County, Virginia, and an enslaved servant of Grymes's neighbor, a Dr. Steward. William Grimes served at least ten different masters in Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia, working in such varied positions as house servant, valet, field worker, stable boy, and coachman. He was a light-skinned slave, a fact that enabled him to pass as white on various occasions. Oftentimes he was severely mistreated by both his masters and his fellow slaves, and Grimes also endured physical abuse in the house and in the field, and at times became combative or despondent. He escaped slavery in 1814 by stowing away on a ship bound for New York and became an entrepreneur in New England. He eventually settled in New Haven, Connecticut, and married Clarissa Caesar in 1817. They had eighteen children together, twelve of whom survived. After eventually finding a small measure of success, Grimes lost all of his property when his master discovered his location and forced him to buy his freedom or risk being returned to slavery. Grimes wrote the Life of William Grimes and published it in 1825, hoping to regain some of his lost funds. He published a second edition of his autobiography in 1855, updating it with humorous anecdotes and tempering some of his earlier bitterness. Grimes died in August 1865. The Life of William Grimes was the first book-length autobiography written by a fugitive American slave, and its publication. Furthermore, The Life of William Grimes is an important early text in the slave narrative genre, and it provides a raw and engaging first-hand account of the institution of slavery, unmediated by Abolitionist political aims.
Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave by William Grimes Pdf
The Life of William Grimes offers an eye-opening account of a life during and after slavery, written by a man who experienced and witnessed the worst. Unlike other slave memoirs, The Life of William Grimes has not been sanitized or otherwise edited for the benefit of what, at the time, was a mostly white readership. The tone set by Grimes in his recollections is one of bitter resentment and indignation at an experience which was demeaning, physically and mentally torturing, and an insult to his very humanity. Intelligent and perceptive, it was only through luck and trusting his own wits that William was able to escape his enslavement. The son of a white plantation owner and a black mother who worked as his father's slave, Grimes variously worked around the plantation grounds as a coach driver, stable boy, and in the fields.
Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar,Kathleen Van Cleve Pdf
“A brilliant work of US history.” —School Library Journal (starred review) “Gripping.” —BCCB (starred review) “Accessible…Necessary.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction, Never Caught is the eye-opening narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington’s runaway slave, who risked everything for a better life—now available as a young reader’s edition! In this incredible narrative, Erica Armstrong Dunbar reveals a fascinating and heartbreaking behind-the-scenes look at the Washingtons when they were the First Family—and an in-depth look at their slave, Ona Judge, who dared to escape from one of the nation’s Founding Fathers. Born into a life of slavery, Ona Judge eventually grew up to be George and Martha Washington’s “favored” dower slave. When she was told that she was going to be given as a wedding gift to Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Ona made the bold and brave decision to flee to the north, where she would be a fugitive. From her childhood, to her time with the Washingtons and living in the slave quarters, to her escape to New Hampshire, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, along with Kathleen Van Cleve, shares an intimate glimpse into the life of a little-known, but powerful figure in history, and her brave journey as she fled the most powerful couple in the country.
Shares the stories of Wallace Turnage and John Washington, former slaves who, in the midst of chaos during the Civil War, escaped to the North and lived to tell about their experiences.
"When Pelly sees her best friend, who disappeared six years ago, in a coffee shop with a strange man, she's determined to discover the truth of her friend's disappearance and rescue her from her current captor"--
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass Pdf
Frederick Douglass recounts early years of abuse, his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom, abolitionist campaigns, and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves. It is also the only of Douglass's autobiographies to discuss his life during and after the Civil War, including his encounters with American presidents such as Lincoln, Grant, and Garfield.
Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America by Damian Alan Pargas Pdf
This volume introduces a new way to study the experiences of runaway slaves by defining different “spaces of freedom” they inhabited. It also provides a groundbreaking continental view of fugitive slave migration, moving beyond the usual regional or national approaches to explore locations in Canada, the U.S. North and South, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Using newspapers, advertisements, and new demographic data, contributors show how events like the Revolutionary War and westward expansion shaped the slave experience. Contributors investigate sites of formal freedom, where slavery was abolished and refugees were legally free, to determine the extent to which fugitive slaves experienced freedom in places like Canada while still being subject to racism. In sites of semiformal freedom, as in the northern United States, fugitives’ claims to freedom were precarious because state abolition laws conflicted with federal fugitive slave laws. Contributors show how local committees strategized to interfere with the work of slave catchers to protect refugees. Sites of informal freedom were created within the slaveholding South, where runaways who felt relocating to distant destinations was too risky formed maroon communities or attempted to blend in with free black populations. These individuals procured false documents or changed their names to avoid detection and pass as free. The essays discuss slaves’ motivations for choosing these destinations, the social networks that supported their plans, what it was like to settle in their new societies, and how slave flight impacted broader debates about slavery. This volume redraws the map of escape and emancipation during this period, emphasizing the importance of place in defining the meaning and extent of freedom. Contributors: Kyle Ainsworth | Mekala Audain | Gordon S. Barker | Sylviane A. Diouf | Roy E. Finkenbine | Graham Russell Gao Hodges | Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie | Viola Franziska Müller | James David Nichols | Damian Alan Pargas | Matthew Pinsker A volume in the series Southern Dissent, edited by Stanley Harrold and Randall M. Miller