The Blind African Slave: Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey BraceThe 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. |
From inside the book
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Page 19
... indentured servants or as small farmers.11 By the eighteenth century dozens of Welches lived on the island, concentrated largely in St. Michael Parish, the parish in which Barbados's largest city, Bridgetown, is located. The Welches of ...
... indentured servants or as small farmers.11 By the eighteenth century dozens of Welches lived on the island, concentrated largely in St. Michael Parish, the parish in which Barbados's largest city, Bridgetown, is located. The Welches of ...
Page 25
... indentured servants imported from England by the original planters in the seventeenth century . In “ the early narratives , histories , travel accounts and biographies ... labouring white women are described variously as loose wenches ...
... indentured servants imported from England by the original planters in the seventeenth century . In “ the early narratives , histories , travel accounts and biographies ... labouring white women are described variously as loose wenches ...
Page 32
... Indentured servitude of poor Europeans had always been a central source of labor for the English colonies, and en- slavement of Africans had been practiced in Anglo-America since 1619 when a Dutch vessel delivered twenty Africans to ...
... Indentured servitude of poor Europeans had always been a central source of labor for the English colonies, and en- slavement of Africans had been practiced in Anglo-America since 1619 when a Dutch vessel delivered twenty Africans to ...
Page 33
... indentured servitude and Africans into slavery in New Haven. A typical announcement in The Connecticut Gazette stated: “Samuel Wil- lis of Middletown will sell several African boys and girls” (Aug. 22, 1761, Scott 109). The lack of ...
... indentured servitude and Africans into slavery in New Haven. A typical announcement in The Connecticut Gazette stated: “Samuel Wil- lis of Middletown will sell several African boys and girls” (Aug. 22, 1761, Scott 109). The lack of ...
Page 36
... indentured servants , slaves , blacks , Indians , reli- gious dissenters , and many white men were excluded from the political process ; indeed , “ as late as the 1760s only twenty - five percent of the adult males in New Haven took ...
... indentured servants , slaves , blacks , Indians , reli- gious dissenters , and many white men were excluded from the political process ; indeed , “ as late as the 1760s only twenty - five percent of the adult males in New Haven took ...
Contents
3 | |
A Note on the Text | 85 |
The Blind African Slave Or Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace | 87 |
Deeds of Manumission Drawn by William Welch | 185 |
Legal Documents Related to Jeffrey Braces Military Pension Application 18181821 | 193 |
Documents related to Jeffrey Braces Land Transactions and Estate | 217 |
A Brace Chronology | 223 |
Bibliography | 227 |
Other editions - View all
The Blind African Slave: Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace Jeffrey Brace No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
abolitionist African American Albans arrived Autobiography Barbados Beckles Benjamin Prentiss Benjamin Stiles Blind African Slave Boyrereau Bridgetown Brinch British Capt Captain century chapter christian Church colonies color commanded Connecticut Continental Army Cothren Court David death deponent died Dogon England English enlisted enslaved Equiano father Franklin County Georgia Goram Haven Hinman History household indentured indentured servants Indian Isaac Mills Island James Jeffery Jeffrey Brace John Judge king’s kingdom of Bow-woo labor land language Litchfield County lived London Lord manumission manumitted married Martin Powell Mary Stiles master memoir Middle Passage Milford Mills Moses mulatto narrative narrator native Negro man slave Niger Office person Poultney Poultney Town Prentiss Public Records regiment Revolutionary river sailed Samuel servants Seth Wetmore Sheldon ship slave named slave trade slavery sold soldiers Southbury thou tion town tree unto Vermont whipped wife William Welch woman women Woodbury York