![Lunsford Lane](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Lunsford_Lane.jpg)
Lunsford Lane (May 30, 1803 – June 27, 1879) was an entrepreneur
tobacconist
A tobacconist, also called a tobacco shop, a tobacconist's shop or a smoke shop, is a retailer of tobacco products in various forms and the related accoutrements, such as pipes, lighters, matches, pipe cleaners, and pipe tampers. More specia ...
from
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
who bought freedom for himself and his family. He became a vocal
opponent of slavery and wrote a
slave narrative
The slave narrative is a type of literary genre involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of enslaved Africans, particularly in the Americas. Over six thousand such narratives are estimated to exist; about 150 narratives were published as ...
autobiography. His life and narrative shows the plight of slavery, even for the relatively privileged slaves.
Life
Lane was born near
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...
. His parents, Edward and Clarissa Lane, were enslaved house servants (commonly called "
house slaves
A house slave was a slave who worked, and often lived, in the house of the slave-owner, performing domestic labor. House slaves performed largely the same duties as all domestic workers throughout history, such as cooking, cleaning, serving meals, ...
") in the family of Sherwood Haywood in Raleigh. The surname Lane came from their original owners. The only child, Lunsford Lane also became a servant at the family. This gave him far more opportunities than were available to enslaved field workers (then called "
field slaves"), but he still dreamt of freedom.
He earned his first money by selling a basket of peaches his father had given him. This was the start of a varied entrepreneurial career. Lane sold marbles and saved money he was given by guests visiting the house. From his father he had learnt to prepare smoking tobacco. Lane improved on it, and made a tobacco with an especially sweet and pleasant taste. He made it by night when he was free from the house work. He also made a pipe with
reeds, a hot wire and clay, which he sold in the early part of the night, and produced in the latter. Many of the local legislators became his customers, and he was able to expand his business and have others sell the products on commission. He became known as a tobacconist while doing his work as a house slave in daytime. He also sold firewood, worked as a
handyman
A handyman, also known as a fixer, handyperson or handyworker, is a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, are both interior and exterior, and are so ...
and as a messenger in governor
Edward B. Dudley's office.
Sherwood Haywood died and his widow had to rent out Lane. This was lucky for him, since he was able to rent himself for about $100 to $120 per year. Eventually he had saved enough money to purchase his own freedom for $1000. He married Martha Curtis in May 1828, and they had seven children. He would spend another 18 years purchasing his family. He was still legally a slave in North Carolina since the law required a slave to have done "meritorious service" to become a free man. Lane instead traveled with a friend to New York in 1835, where he was granted freedom.
Five years later, in 1840, he was notified that since he got his freedom in New York, he violated a state law forbidding free blacks from other states from staying in North Carolina for more than 20 days. He petitioned for an exception, but was forced to leave the next year. Forbidden from living in his home town, he moved to New York and Boston in the north. There he earned money to free his family by speaking at abolitionist meetings.
In Baltimore, Lane and a companion were arrested when a slave trader claimed they were runaways. Despite having their free papers and other documentation it went to trial. They were freed after the trader refused to show documents of the runaways, and a passionate speech by the young lawyer who defended Lane and his companion. Kidnappings of free blacks and falsely claiming free people as fugitive slaves was common at the time.
In 1842 he returned to Raleigh to buy the rest of his family. Despite prior assurances, he was arrested for delivering
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
lectures in the North. He was released, but taken by a mob to the gallows in the wood and
tarred and feathered
Tarring and feathering is a form of public torture and punishment used to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. It was used in feudal Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a t ...
.
His local white friends rescued him and helped him escape on a train with his family. He was also given his mother by Mrs. Haywood. They settled in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, later joined by his father.
Soon after arriving in Philadelphia, the Lanes moved to
, settling first in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and then in 1845, moving to
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
where his youngest daughter was born. Census records and Cambridge city directories during that period list a number of occupations for Lane including
book agent, physician and manufacturer of
patent medicines
A patent medicine, sometimes called a proprietary medicine, is an over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name (and sometimes a patent) and claimed ...
.
In 1863 Lane was working as a steward at
Wellington's Hospital in
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...
After the death of his youngest daughter in April 1872, Lunsford Lane moved to
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
in New York City; he died sometime during the month of June 1879 in a multi-family
tenement
A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...
at 15 Cornelia Street in the West Village of
dropsy
Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels tight, the area ma ...
and
old age
Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human life cycle. Terms and euphemisms for people at this age include old people, the elderly (worldwide usage), OAPs (British usage ...
.
[U.S. Census Mortality Schedules, New York, 1850-1880; New York State Education Department, Office of Cultural Education; Albany, New York; Year: 1880; Roll: M11; Line Number: 22. Accessed at http://www.ancestry.com ] Shortly before his death he helped found a school in
New Bern, North Carolina
New Bern, formerly called Newbern, is a city in Craven County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 29,524, which had risen to an estimated 29,994 as of 2019. It is the county seat of Craven County and t ...
.
In 2019, a historical marker honoring him was erected on Edenton Street in Raleigh.
[
]
The Narrative of Lunsford Lane
In 1842 Lane published ''The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly of Raleigh, N.C. Embracing an Account of His Early Life, the Redemption by Purchase of Himself and Family from Slavery, and His Banishment from the Place of His Birth for the Crime of Wearing a Colored Skin.''[ A]
Internet Archive
Internet Archive
Project Gutenberg
It was well received and was reprinted three times in six years.
Biographies
Much of what is known about Lunsford Lane comes from his own narrative above and the contemporary biography by William George Hawkins: ''Lunsford Lane; or, Another Helper from North Carolina''.[ Also a]
Internet Archive
/ref> He is also given a chapter in John Spencer Bassett's ''Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina'' of 1898.[ A]
Internet Archive
/ref>
See also
* Moses Grandy
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
* List of slaves
Slavery is a social-economic system under which people are enslaved: deprived of personal freedom and forced to perform labor or services without compensation. These people are referred to as slaves, or as enslaved people.
The following is a ...
References
External links
*
*
Lunsford Lane landmark in Cambridge MA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Lunsford
19th-century American slaves
People who wrote slave narratives
Businesspeople from Raleigh, North Carolina
1803 births
1879 deaths
Abolitionists from Boston
Tarring and feathering in the United States
African-American abolitionists