The Blind African Slave: Or Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) - Softcover

Brace, Jeffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299201449 ISBN 13: 9780299201449

Verlag: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

The Blind African Slave recounts the life of Jeffrey Brace (né Boyrereau Brinch), who was born in West Africa around 1742. Captured by slave traders at the age of sixteen, Brace was transported to Barbados, where he experienced the shock and trauma of slave-breaking and was sold to a New England ship captain. After fighting as an enslaved sailor for two years in the Seven Years War, Brace was taken to New Haven, Connecticut, and sold into slavery. After several years in New England, Brace enlisted in the Continental Army in hopes of winning his manumission. After five years of military service, he was honorably discharged and was freed from slavery. As a free man, he chose in 1784 to move to Vermont, the first state to make slavery illegal. There, he met and married an African woman, bought a farm, and raised a family. Although literate, he was blind when he decided to publish his life story, which he narrated to a white antislavery lawyer, Benjamin Prentiss, who published it in 1810. Upon his death in 1827, Brace was a well-respected abolitionist. In this first new edition since 1810, Kari J. Winter provides a historical introduction, annotations, and original documents that verify and supplement our knowledge of Brace's life and times.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Kari J. Winter is associate professor of American Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is the author of Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change: Women and Power in Gothic Novels and Slave Narratives, 1790-1865.

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The Blind African Slave, Or Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace

THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS

Copyright © 2004 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-299-20144-9

Contents

Illustration List..................................................................................................ixPreface............................................................................................................xiIntroduction.......................................................................................................3A Note on the Text.................................................................................................85The Blind African Slave; Or, Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace..................................87Appendix A: Deeds of Manumission Drawn by William Welch............................................................185Appendix B: Legal Documents Related to Jeffrey Brace's Military Pension Application, 1818-1821.....................193Appendix C: Documents related to Jeffrey Brace's Land Transactions and Estate......................................217Appendix D: A Brace Chronology.....................................................................................223Bibliography.......................................................................................................227

Chapter One

General observations-account of the river Neboah or Niger-of an English vessel engaged in the slave trade-general account of the kingdom of Bow-woo-description of Deauyah, the capital-king's palace-face of the country-soil-climate-laws and customs, peculiar to this country-crimes how punished-mode of the creation of nobility-war feast-brief account of Boyrereau's ancestors-father, mother, brothers, sisters, & c.-speculative observations-scriptures.

Few indeed have been the travellers who have penetrated into the interior of Africa, as far as the kingdom of Bow-woo, which is situated between the 10th and 20th degrees of north latitude, and between the 6th and 10th of west longitude; and these few have been of that class of travellers, who are either incapable of, or have other pursuits than, communicating to the world that useful information, which has so long been sought in vain. We have indeed obtained some knowledge of the river Neboah of Niger, which runs throu' this fertile dominion. According to the account in Morse's Universal Geography, this river is one of the longest in the world. It is said to be navigable for ships of any size, upwards of 1500 miles.

"The Niger, according to the latest accounts, rises near Sankaria, longitude 6 degrees 20 minutes west, latitude 11 deg. north, thence running northerly to Knia-bia, thence Northeast to Bammako, thence generally a northeast course to Sego and Jennu, thence, after forming the island of Janbala 90 or 100 miles in length, it leaves Tombuctoo to the north, passes east by Houssa and is lost in the low lands and lakes of Ghana and Wangara; or if we can credit the accounts of Mr. Horneman, it continues its course easterly to the north of the mountains of the Moon; thence northeasterly until it falls into Bahriel Arrak, which by some has been considered the Nile, from Abyssinia, thence passing Nubia, Sennaar, and Dongolia, it divides Egypt into two parts, pursuing a northerly course, and falls into the Mediterranean by several mouths." But in examining the latest and most approved maps of Africa we cannot find such a river described and it is therefore believed that no historian or engraver has been able to delineate exactly the source or direction of this river. Yet certain it is, that its source is north of the equator, and it is navigable for boats as far as the town of Deauyah, the capital of the kingdom of Bow-woo, which is situated in the county of Hughlough, about three miles from the river on an extensive plain, fertilized by the most luxuriant bounties of nature, peculiar to that clime. According to some writers, "this river has its source in the lake Bernu, and runs directly west, enters the Atlantic, or Western Ocean at Senegal, after a course of 2800 miles. It increases and decreases like the Nile, fertilizes the country, and has grains of gold in many parts of it. The Gambia and Senegal are only branches of this river."

In the year 1758, an English vessel, engaged in the slave trade, sailed up this river to the head of navigation and came to anchor before the town of Yellow Bonga. The hurricane months having commenced, they made their peace with the natives, the crew went on shore, and remained through the rainy season, which commences in May and continues until September. After this season of the year was past and during the time of high water, it appears that they continued their passage up the river about 70 miles farther, leaving the Captain, Supercargo, and some other officers and gentlemen to riot in the luxury of the land, with the chief inhabitants, whom their intrigue and apparent affability, the Europeans had induced to become friends. While the vessel lay at anchor in a kind of lake formed in the river, they sent out their boats to steal the innocent natives and succeeded but too well.

Here we will leave these dealers in human flesh and blood, and give some account of the kingdom of Bow-woo, before mentioned. This kingdom, or principality lies about, or the capital stands about, 280 miles above the town of Yellow Bonga-and here the account is taken from the narrator's own mouth who was only 15 or 16 years of age when he was taken and borne away from prosperity, affluence and ease into ignominious slavery.

This he considers to be a province or colony of the Empire of Morocco, the extent of its boundaries he is unable to ascertain, nor can he tell accurately the number of its inhabitants. But the city of Deauyah, the capital and residence of the king, also the native place of Boyrereau, the narrator, is situated on the bank of a small river, about six rods wide, which empties into the Niger, three miles below the town, which is between five and six miles in length, along the east side of said river, and is built in a manner peculiar to that country-the houses are placed in rows, & are joined, only where broken off or intersected by cross streets. This town, besides public buildings, contains nine rows of houses, which are long and low, none more than one story high, except the King's Palace. They are generally built of a kind of clay, made into a cement, which is strengthened by being bound together by small sticks of timber in the body of the walls, so that the face of the same upon both sides is made perfectly smooth and painted, or rather colored white, red, blue, green, purple, or black, according to the fancy of the possessor, which variety renders the view very picturesque and really diverting to the beholder.

The King's palace is situated near the north part of that city, and is composed of about thirty buildings of a very diversified appearance, many of them are in some degree elegant, and this palace includes all the public buildings of the city, except a market and two places of public worship. The country adjacent, for many miles around, appears like a perfect plain, and thinly inhabited, except where there are villages, which are to be met once in about two leagues, generally, in every part of the kingdom, except in the mountainous part, of which he has but little knowledge.-The climate, as may naturally be supposed, is uniformly hot, except in the rainy seasons (which is called in their language vauzier). As a very learned writer...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of Wisconsin Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2005
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0299201449
• ISBN 13: 9780299201449
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 264
• Herausgeber: Winter Kari J.
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar