From Bondage to Belonging:
The Worcester Slave Narratives
Edited by B. Eugene McCarthy and Thomas L. Doughton
University of Massachusetts
978-1-55849-622-4

This book is crazy good. Why don’t they use primary materials like these in middle and high schools? The thought and feelings of these men and women are perfectly intelligible to children of that age, and incredibly powerful as they are the words of the people themselves, not some scholar telling, but real slaves showing.

And with that, I’ll let the people speak for themselves.


The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly of Raleigh, N.C. 1842
“My infancy was spent upon the floor, in a rough cradle, or sometimes in my mother’s arms; my early boyhood in playing with the other boys and girls, colored and white, in the yard… I knew no difference between myself and the white children nor did they seem to know any in turn. Sometimes my master would come out and give a biscuit to me, and another to one of his own white boys but I did not perceive the difference between us…

“When I began to work, I discovered the difference between myself and my master’s white children. They began to order my about, and were told to do so by my master and mistress. I found, too, that they had learned to read, while I was not permitted to have a book in my hand. To be in possession of anything written or printed was regarded as an offence. And then there was the fear that I might be sold away from those who were dear to me, and conveyed far to the South I had learned that being a slave I was subject to this worst (to us) of all calamities and I knew of other in similar situations to myself, thus sold away… To know, also, that I was never to consult my own will, but was, while I lived, to be entirely under the control of another, was another state of mind hard for me to bear. Indeed all things now made me feel, what I had before known only in words, the I was a slave.”


The Life of John Thompson, A Fugitive Slave; Containing His History of 25 Years in Bondage, and His Providential Escape. Written By Himself. 1856
“The first act of slavery which I recorded in my memory , was the sale of my elder sister, who belonged to Henry Wagar, brother to J,H., and who lived three miles from our plantation. My mother heard of the sale, which was on Saturday, and on Sunday tool us with her to see our beloved sister, who was then in the yard with the trader’s drove, preparatory to being removed far South, on the Monday following. After traveling six miles, we arrived at our place of destination. Mother, approaching the door of the trader’s house, fell upon her knees, in tears begging to be permitted to see her imprisoned daughter, who was soon to be dragged away from her embrace, probably to be seen no more in the flesh. It was not his custom to admit slaves into his yard to see their friends; but at this time, his heart seemed to be moved with compassion, for he opened the door, telling us to go in, which we did.

“Here, the first thing that saluted my ears, was the rattling of the chains upon the limbs of the poor victims. It seemed to me to be a hell upon the earth, emblematical of that dreadful dungeon where the wicked are kept, until the day of God’s retribution, and where their torment ascends up forever and ever. As soon as my sister say our mother, she ran to her and fell upon her neck, but was unable to speak a word. There was a scene which angels witnessed; there were tears which, I believe, were bottled and placed in God’s depository, there to be reserved until the day when He shall pour His wrath upon this guilty nation.”