Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
The History of Mary Prince A West Indian Slave By: Mary Prince (1788-1833) |
---|
![]()
RELATED BY HERSELF.
WITH A SUPPLEMENT BY THE EDITOR. To which is added, THE NARRATIVE OF ASA ASA, A CAPTURED AFRICAN. "By our sufferings, since ye brought us
To the man degrading mart,
All sustain'd by patience, taught us
Only by a broken heart,
Deem our nation brutes no longer,
Till some reason ye shall find
Worthier of regard, and stronger
Than the colour of our kind."
COWPER. LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY F. WESTLEY AND A. H. DAVIS,
STATIONERS' HALL COURT;
AND BY WAUGH & INNES, EDINBURGH. 1831.
PREFACE.
The idea of writing Mary Prince's history was first suggested by herself.
She wished it to be done, she said, that good people in England might hear
from a slave what a slave had felt and suffered; and a letter of her late
master's, which will be found in the Supplement, induced me to accede to
her wish without farther delay. The more immediate object of the
publication will afterwards appear. The narrative was taken down from Mary's own lips by a lady who happened
to be at the time residing in my family as a visitor. It was written out
fully, with all the narrator's repetitions and prolixities, and afterwards
pruned into its present shape; retaining, as far as was practicable,
Mary's exact expressions and peculiar phraseology. No fact of importance
has been omitted, and not a single circumstance or sentiment has been
added. It is essentially her own, without any material alteration farther
than was requisite to exclude redundancies and gross grammatical errors,
so as to render it clearly intelligible. After it had been thus written out, I went over the whole, carefully
examining her on every fact and circumstance detailed; and in all that
relates to her residence in Antigua I had the advantage of being assisted
in this scrutiny by Mr. Joseph Phillips, who was a resident in that colony
during the same period, and had known her there. The names of all the persons mentioned by the narrator have been printed
in full, except those of Capt. I and his wife, and that of Mr. D ,
to whom conduct of peculiar atrocity is ascribed. These three individuals
are now gone to answer at a far more awful tribunal than that of public
opinion, for the deeds of which their former bondwoman accuses them; and
to hold them up more openly to human reprobation could no longer affect
themselves, while it might deeply lacerate the feelings of their surviving
and perhaps innocent relatives, without any commensurate public advantage. Without detaining the reader with remarks on other points which will be
adverted to more conveniently in the Supplement, I shall here merely
notice farther, that the Anti Slavery Society have no concern whatever
with this publication, nor are they in any degree responsible for the
statements it contains. I have published the tract, not as their
Secretary, but in my private capacity; and any profits that may arise from
the sale will be exclusively appropriated to the benefit of Mary Prince
herself. THO. PRINGLE. 7, Solly Terrace, Claremont Square , January 25, 1831.
P. S. Since writing the above, I have been furnished by my friend Mr.
George Stephen, with the interesting narrative of Asa Asa, a captured
African, now under his protection; and have printed it as a suitable
appendix to this little history. T. P.
THE HISTORY OF MARY PRINCE, A WEST INDIAN SLAVE. (Related by herself.)
I was born at Brackish Pond, in Bermuda, on a farm belonging to Mr.
Charles Myners. My mother was a household slave; and my father, whose name
was Prince, was a sawyer belonging to Mr... Continue reading book >>
|
Genres for this book |
---|
Biography |
Science |
eBook links |
---|
Wikipedia – Mary Prince |
Wikipedia – The History of Mary Prince A West Indian Slave |
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|