- Leonard Black
Leonard Black was born in
Anne Arundel County ,Maryland , into slavery under a carpenter by the name of Bradford. After living in slavery for twenty years he escaped and lived on to write a novel in 1847 called “”. At the age of six, Leonard was separated from his father, mother, and at least four brothers, who were sold away toNew Orleans .Throughout the narrative Black was sold and moved around numerous times, abused, beaten, and he often refers to how he had absolutely no personal possessions. [http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/black/black.html "During this time I had no hat, no pantaloons, but one pair of shoes, and wore a lindsey slip only.”]
When he was about 16, he met up with some of his brothers, three of which were free from slavery, and gave him a little money for safe keeping, which he later got stolen away. By around 18, Black was bought by a cotton farmer who had a son who was a Christian preacher, and this preacher began teaching him about Christianity, inevitably making him a loyal Christian for the rest of his life.
In 1837, motivated by a desire to be free like his three brothers, he decided to run away with the help of his friend Henry, who betrayed him and went to his master, but Black still managed to escape with 75 cents and the clothes on his back. From his former master’s he worked his way up to Boston and worked for various people doing odd jobs to get money for food. Once he finally arrived, he met up with his three brothers, and parents who assumed him to be dead, and quickly wrote his narrative in hopes of ending slavery and freeing his fourth brother who was still in slavery at the time he wrote the book. His narrative, was one of many lost stories that was published during the 19th century before slavery was abolished, and he wrote it as a Christian, in hopes of reaching out to other Christians to show them what slavery was like.
References
* [http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/black/black.html University of North Carolina Archives]
Suggested Reading
*Slave Narratives Wiki
*African-American Literature
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