Narrative Of Henry Watson, A Fugitive Slave
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''Narrative of Henry Watson, a fugitive slave'' is a
slave narrative The slave narrative is a type of literary genre involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of enslaved persons, particularly African diaspora, Africans enslaved in the Americas, though many other examples exist. Over six thousand such narra ...
by Henry Watson (b. about 1813), an African-American
slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
and
abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...
. His work is autobiographical, characteristic of the slave narratives of fugitive slaves of the period before emancipation. It is written in a "polemical" style typical of fugitive slave narratives and details the abuses he experienced while enslaved. Unlike most fugitive slave narratives, however, Watson's memoir recounts his self-doubt rather than projecting an image of heroism.


Summary

Watson was enslaved for 26 years in
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
and
Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
before escaping to the North. Watson was born in 1813 in Virginia, and at the age of 8 he was taken away from his family and forced to serve a cruel slave master. At first in Virginia, while later he was forced to march to Natchez in order to be sold to Mississippi planters, according to his narrative he was marched in a
coffle A coffle, sometimes called a platoon or a drove, was a group of enslaved people chained together and marched from one place to another by owners or slave traders. These troupes, sometimes called shipping lots before they were moved, ranged in siz ...
with others, treated like animals and threatened with corporal punishment for the slightest infraction. When reaching Natchez the slave trader took off the slaves chains and changed their clothes in order for "visitors to examine the flock". Another tactic was to grease the mouths of slaves before the auction so that they would appear well and as if they have just eaten meat. If the slaves displeased him, he would strip them and flog them with a paddle. Additionally, he explained that buyers would look for scars from whipping that would indicate a rebellious slave and therefore lower the price. Furthermore he provides information on the treatment of slaves by their masters, for example the masters examined their slaves at all times to make sure they were appearing happy and if they were "in any mood other than laughing or singing" they were "often whipped or sold". His account also details the harsh conditions under which the slaves worked in the plantation, for example "each individual having a stated number of pounds of cotton to pick" and if this was not met then "the deficit was made up by as many lashes being applied to the back of the poor slave's back". Writing about his owner's wife and the fact that she enjoyed inflicting pain to those under her power, he described her as "taking delight in torturing, - in fact she made it a past time" and that "she inspired everyone about her with terror". While in Mississippi a "gentleman from Boston", an abolitionist probably part of the
Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...
, encouraged him to seek his freedom to the North. He suggested boarding a ship and prepared him for any questions that the captain or other white people could possibly have, Watson decided to take the boat to his freedom.


Publication and reception

The book was published by Bela Marsh, a for-profit anti-slavery press, first in 1848, with a second edition in 1849 and a third in 1850. Describing five slave narratives including that of Henry Watson, '' The Christian Examiner and Religious Miscellany'' wrote, "We place these volumes without hesitation among the most remarkable productions of the age,—remarkable as being pictures of slavery by the slave, remarkable as disclosing under a new light the mixed elements of American civilization, and not less remarkable as a vivid exhibition of the force and working of the native love of freedom in the individual mind."


See also

* Kangaroo, Mississippi – Watson discusses gambling in Vicksburg


External links


Digitized copy in the Library of Congress


References

{{Authority control Slave narratives 1848 non-fiction books African-American autobiographies Books about African-American history American autobiographies