Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851 edition. Excerpt:....NARRATIVE Off THE LIFE OF HENRY BOX BROWN. CHAPTER I. I Was born about DEGREESforty-five miles from the city of Richmond, in Louisa County, in the year 1815. I entered the world a slave--in the midst of a country whose most honoured writings declare that all men have a right to liberty--but had imprinted upon my body no mark which could be made to signify that my destiny was to be that of a bondman. Neither was there any angel stood by, at the hour of my birth, to hand my body over, by the authority of heaven, to be the property of a fellow-man; no, but I was a slave because my countrymen had made it lawful, in utter contempt of the declared will of heaven, for the strong to layhold of the weak and to buy and to sell them as marketable goods. Thus was I born a slave; tyrants-- remorseless, destitute of religion and every principle jof humanity--stood by the couch of my mother and as I entered into the world, before I had done anything to orfeit my right to liberty, and while my soul was yev undenled by the commission of actual sin, stretched forth their bloody arms and branded me with the mark of bondage, and by such means I became their own property. Yes, they robbed me of myself before I could know the nature of their wicked arts, and ever afterwards--until I forcibly wrenched myself from their hands--did they retain their stolen property. My father and mother of course, were then slaves, but both of them are now enjoying such a measure of liberty, aa the law affords to those who have made recompense to the tyrant for the right of property he holds in his fellow-man. It was not my fortune to be long under my mother's care; but I still possess a vivid - recollection of her affectionate oversight. Such lessons as the following she would...