Showing results for "Slave" in Politics & Activism

This classic of American literature, a dramatic autobiography of the early life of an American slave, was first published in 1845, when its author had just achieved his freedom. It is a story that shocked the world with its first-hand account of the horrors of slavery. The book was an incredible success. It sold over 30,000 copies and was an international best seller.

Paul Jennings was born into slavery on the plantation of James and Dolley Madison in Virginia, later becoming part of the Madison household staff at the White House. Once finally emancipated by Senator Daniel Webster later in life, he would give an aged and impoverished Dolley Madison, his former owner, money from his own pocket, write the first White House memoir, and see his sons fight with the Union Army in the Civil War.

Founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12, 1733, the Georgia colony was envisioned as a unique social welfare experiment. Administered by twenty-one original trustees, the Georgia Plan offered England's "worthy poor" and persecuted Christians an opportunity to achieve financial security in the New World by exporting goods produced on small farms. Most significantly, Oglethorpe and his fellow Trustees were convinced that economic vitality could not be achieved through the exploitation of enslaved Black laborers.

Solomon Northup lebte über dreißig Jahre als freier Bürger, bis er von Sklavenhändlern verschleppt und an einen Plantagenbesitzer in Louisiana verkauft wurde. Dort erlitt er zwölf Jahre grausamster Gefangenschaft, ehe er seine Freiheit zurückgewann und zu seiner Familie heimkehren konnte. Northups Memoiren von 1853 sind ein wertvolles historisches Dokument über ein dunkles Kapitel amerikanischer Geschichte und das berührende Zeugnis eines mutigen und unnachgiebigen Mannes.

Self-taught slave and underground railroad worker James Williams' memoir of his escape, time during the Gold Rush, and observations of the world around him. He starts with his birth and then escape - feeling the pull of the California Gold Rush. In these few pages, James gives a fascinating account of the people he met and events he witnessed.