The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave

About this book

Mary Prince was born into slavery in Bermuda around 1788. In this short narrative she tells how she was sold away from her mother and sisters as a child, beaten by cruel owners, and sent to work for years in the salt ponds of the Turks Islands, standing in salt water until her legs were covered with boils. Later she was taken to Antigua and then to London by her owners, where she left them and sought help from the Anti-Slavery Society. 'I have been a slave myself,' she says, 'I know what slaves feel.'

Context and significance

Published in London in 1831, two years before slavery was abolished in the British colonies, it was the first account of the life of a Black woman published in Britain, and it caused a sensation and two libel trials. She dictated it to the writer Susanna Strickland. Compare the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

About the author