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"May this little volume be the instrument of opening the eyes of the ignorant to this system-of convincing the wicked, cruel, and hardened slaveholder - and of befriending generally the cause of oppressed humanity." Moses Roger's hopes for his autobiography were realized upon its 1838 publication; today, it is considered among the most important and authentic slave narratives.
Born a slave in Caswell County, North Carolina to a half-black slave and her white master, Roper was separated from his mother at the age of six. This was to be the first of many transactions in which he was sold or traded to plantation owners throughout the South. Roper's narrative recounts his numerous attempts at escape, which finally met with success in 1833, when the 18-year-old managed to jump ship on a New York-bound packet. In New England, he began his affiliation with the abolitionist movement by signing the constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society; eventually he moved to London, where he met several prominent British abolitionists who assisted him in securing an education.
Roper remained active in the antislavery movement, delivering lectures on his slave experiences and impressing listeners with his articulate and moving accounts of the brutality of slave life and his irrepressible longing for freedom. This memoir resounds with the qualities that made Roper a popular speaker, and offers readers a powerful first-hand account of the horrific realities of life in slavery.
Moses Roper
(1837, 1838), 2003, 5.5" x 8.5", Paper, 43 pp.
ISBN: 9780486427188
111-R2718
