This book contains slave narratives from Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Reverend Noah Davis, Josiah Henson, James W. C. Pennington, John Thompson, and Henry Watson, all of whom had major connections to Maryland. It also contains twenty-two additional slave narratives collected by the Work Projects Administration (WPA) and two others.
The difficulties of Harriet Tubman, often called “The Moses of Her People,” which is the title of the famous book written by Sarah Bradford, and her well-known success with the Underground Railroad, are described here in Bradford’s book.
The story of Frederick Douglass, one of America’s most famous abolitionists, is told in “My Escape From Slavery.”
Reverend Noah Davis entitled his narrative simply, “Narrative Of The Life Of Rev. Noah Davis, A Colored Man.”
The story of Josiah Henson, “Life Of Josiah Henson, Formerly A Slave, Now An Inhabitant Of Canada, As Narrated By Himself,” is considered to have been the model for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom’s Cabin, often called the book that started a war.
James W. C. Pennington entitled his narrative “The Fugitive Blacksmith, or Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington.”
John Thompson wrote “The Life Of John Thompson, A Fugitive Slave; Containing His History Of 25 Years In Bondage, And His Providential Escape.”
Henry Watson’s narrative is entitled “Narrative Of Henry Watson, A Fugitive Slave.”
