Up from Slavery
Chapter One
A SLAVE AMONG SLAVES
I was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County,
Virginia. I am not quite sure of the exact place or exact date of my
birth, but at any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at
some time. As nearly as I have been able to learn, I was born near a
cross-roads post-office called Hale's Ford, and the year was 1858 or
1859.* I do not know the month or the day. The earliest impressions I
can now recall are of the plantation and the slave quarters — the
latter being the part of the plantation where the slaves had their cabins.
My life had its beginning in the midst of the most miserable, desolate,
and discouraging surroundings. This was so, however, not because my
owners were especially cruel, for they were not, as compared with many
others. I was born in a typical log cabin, about fourteen by sixteen
feet square. In this cabin I lived with my mother and a brother and
sister till after the Civil War, when we were all declared free.
Of my ancestry I know almost nothing. In the slave quarter ... read full excerpt from: Up from Slavery ebook
