Austin Steward
Author
Language
English
Description
Austin Steward (1793—1869) was an African-American author and abolitionist. Born into slavery, he managed to escape from Virginia aged 21 and moved to Rochester, New York before settling in Canada. "Twenty-Two Years a Slave - And Forty Years a Freeman" is Steward's astonishing 1856 autobiography within which he recounts the travails of his harrowing life as a slave in America, as well as his experiences as a free man. A compelling and heart-breaking...
Author
Publication Date
2025
Language
English
Description
SummaryAustin Steward's narrative, like many antebellum slave narratives, opens and closes with authenticating documents. In this case, these documents are predominantly letters to Steward and his publisher that vouch for the writer's character. In the preface that follows the opening letters, Steward writes that the facts of slavery are too horrible to reproduce faithfully. Speaking of himself in the third person, Steward explains that "so far from...