Thirty Years a Slave
From Bondage to Freedom
The institution of slavery as seen on the plantation and in
the home of the planter.
COPYRIGHT, 1896.
Milwaukee, South Side printing company, 1897.
Preface.
The institution of human
slavery, as it existed in this country, has long been dead;
and, happily for all the sacred interests which it assailed,
there is for it no resurrection. It may, therefore, be asked
to what purpose is the story which follows, of the experiences
of one person under that dead and accursed institution? To such
question, if it be asked, it may be answered that the narrator
presents his story in compliance with the suggestion of friends,
and in the hope that it may add something of accurate information
regarding the character and influence of an institution which
for two hundred years dominated the country—exercising
a potent but baneful influence in the formation of its social,
civil and industrial structures, and which finally plunged it
into the most stupendous civil war which the world has ever
known. As the enlightenment of each generation depends upon
the thoughtful study of the history of those that have gone
before, everything which tends to fullness and accuracy in that
history is of value, even though it be not presented with the
adjuncts of literary adornment, or thrilling scenic effects.
Chapter
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