History of Mary Prince.
[Abolition]. Prince, Mary. The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave. Related by Herself. With a Supplement by the Editor. To Which is added The Narrative of Asa-Asa, a Captured African. London: Published by F. Westley and A.H. Davis..., 1831.
8vo.; disbound; lightly soiled.
Third edition of the “first female slave narrative from the Americas,” published in the same year as the first and second editions: Sabin 65569.
Mary Prince (circa 1788-1833) was born into slavery in Brackish Pond, Bermuda. She was shielded from the worst that the institution had to offer until she was eleven, when she was sold off separately from her parents and family. From then on Prince endured a life of physical suffering and sexual abuse. In the early 1820s Prince fell gravely ill; no longer useful as a slave, she was allowed to purchase her freedom in Antigua circa 1826. Shortly thereafter she traveled to London, where she was befriended by members of the Anti-Slavery Society, who urged her to tell her story.
A scarce publication, Prince’s History remains a chillingly effective anti-slavery document. “I know what slaves feel,” Prince assured her readers. “I can tell by myself what other slaves feel... The man that says slaves be quite happy in slavery—that they don’t want to be free—the man is either ignorant or a lying person...”
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