Autobiography of a Female SlaveBrowne, Martha Griffith
History
Autobiography of a Female Slave
Browne, Martha Griffith
African American women -- Fiction; Didactic fiction; Enslaved women -- Fiction; Kentucky -- Fiction; Slavery -- Fiction
He strongly urged me to take up my residence in Boston; but I remembered
that Henry's preference had always been for a New England village; and I
loved to think that I was following out his views, and so I removed to a
quiet puritanical little town in Massachusetts.
And here I now am engaged in teaching a small school of African
children; happy in the discharge of so sacred a duty. 'Tis surprising to
see how rapidly they learn. I am interested, and so are they, in the
work: and thus what with some teachers is an irksome task, is to me a
pleasing duty.
I should state for the benefit of the curious, that Biddy is living in
Boston, happily married to "a countryman," and is the proud mother of
several blooming children. She comes to visit me sometimes, during the
heat of summer, and is always a welcome guest.
Louise, too, has consented to wear matrimony's easy yoke. She lives in
the same village with me. Our social and friendly relations still
continue. I have frequently, when visiting Boston, met Miss Bradly. She,
like me, has never married. She has grown to be a firmer and more
earnest woman than she was in Kentucky. I must not omit to mention the
fact, that when travelling through Canada, I by the rarest chance met
Ben--Amy's treasure--now grown to be a fine-looking youth.
He had a melancholy story--a life, like every other slave's, full of
trouble--but at length, by the sharpest ingenuity, he had made his
escape, and reached, after many difficulties, the golden shores of
Canada!
Now my history has been given--a round, unvarnished tale it is; and
thus, without ornament, I send it forth to the world. I have spoken
freely; at times, I grant, with a touch of bitterness, but never without
truth; and I ask the wise, the considerate, the earnest, if I have not
had cause for bitterness. Who can carp at me? That there are some fiery
Southerners who will assail me, I doubt not; but I feel satisfied that I
have discharged a duty that I solemnly owed to my oppressed and
down-trodden nation. I am calm and self-possessed; I have passed firmly
through the severest ordeal of persecution, and have been spared the
death that has befallen many others. Surely I was saved for some wise
purpose, and I fear nought from those who are fanatically wedded to
wrong and inhumanity. Let them assail me as they will, I shall still
feel that
"Thrice is he armed who has his quarrel just,
And he but naked, though wrapped up in steel,
Whose bosom with injustice is polluted."
But there are others, some even in slave States, kind, noble, thoughtful
persons, earnest seekers after the highest good in life and nature; to
them I consign my little book, sincerely begging, that through my weak
appeal, my poor suffering brothers and sisters, who yet wear the galling
yoke of American slavery, may be granted a hearing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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