Transcriber’s Note Italic text displayed as: _italic_ LIFE OF JOHN THOMPSON. THE LIFE OF JOHN THOMPSON, A FUGITIVE SLAVE; CONTAINING HIS HISTORY OF 25 YEARS IN BONDAGE, AND HIS PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. WORCESTER: PUBLISHED BY JOHN THOMPSON. MDCCCLVI. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1856, BY JOHN THOMPSON, in the Clerk’s office of the District Court of Massachusetts. WORCESTER: PRINTED BY C. HAMILTON, PALLADIUM OFFICE. PREFACE. It would be an unprecedented act to send into the world a work of the magnitude of this volume, without a preface; and I am glad to avail myself of the opportunity, which custom not only allows but prescribes, to say something of the work before you. Its history is as follows: It was suggested to me about two years since, after relating to many the main facts relative to my bondage and escape to the land of freedom, that it would be a desirable thing to put these facts into permanent form. I first sought to discover what had been said by other partners in bondage once, but in freedom now, and from what States they came. I found many of my brethren from other and remote States, had written on the subject, but scarcely any from Maryland. I am aware that now, when public opinion makes it no martyrdom to denounce slavery, there are multitudes of men that grow bold, and wield a powerful weapon against this great evil; and even school boys daringly denounce a system, the enormity of which they cannot appreciate, surely I thought it may be permitted to one who has worn the galling yoke of bondage, to say something of its pains, and something of that freedom which, if he should not succeed in accurately defining, he can truly say he will ever admire and love. JOHN THOMPSON. Worcester, Mass., May, 1856. Life of John Thompson, a Fugitive Slave. CHAP. I. I was born in Maryland, in 1812, and was slave to a Mrs. Wagar. She had four sons and two daughters. The sons were all farmers, owning large tracts of land; which were well stocked with slaves, and other animal property! When her youngest son, James H., was about forty or forty-five years of age, he owned the plantation upon which he and his mother lived, and on which I was born. On this plantation were about two hundred slaves, young and old; of which fifty belonged to him, and the remainder to his mother; but all were in his charge. Mr. J. H. W. had two children, John and Elizabeth. His wife died before I could remember, leaving the children under the supervision of the Grandmother. Elizabeth was about thirteen, and John ten years of age. My parents had seven children, five sons and two daughters. My father and mother were field hands. My younger sister was house girl and ladies’ maid, while the elder was given to one of the sons. The rest of us were too small to work, the eldest being only eleven years old.