Two American Slavery Documents
Two American Slavery Documents
Two vital voices from the fight against American slavery, preserved for generations. James Mars was born into bondage in Connecticut in 1790, a time when most Americans assumed slavery was a Southern institution. His memoir recounts a childhood of forced labor, a desperate flight to the woods with his family to escape being sold South, and his eventual liberation at twenty-five. After winning his freedom, Mars built a life in Hartford and became a respected leader in the local Black community. His account stands as one of the few surviving narratives from enslaved people in New England, a region whose slavery history has been too often erased. Accompanying Mars's testimony is 'Facts for the People of the Free States,' an 1846 abolitionist pamphlet that marshals arguments and evidence against slavery for Northern readers. Together, these documents offer an unflinching look at what freedom meant and what it cost to demand it.
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