Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy

Book Synopsis: Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy is a classic American slave autobiography by Moses Grandy. About a fortnight ago, the subject of the following brief Memoir came to me, bearing with him a letter from a dear friend and distinguished abolitionist in the United States, from which the following is an extract: 'I seize my pen in haste to gratify a most worthy colored friend of mine, by giving him a letter of introduction to you, as he intends sailing this week (August 8th, 1842) for Liverpool and London, via New Orleans. His name is Moses Grandy. Moses Grandy was an African-American author, abolitionist, and, for more than the first four decades of his life, an enslaved person. At eight years of age he became the property of his playmate, James Grandy and two years later he was hired out for work. The monies Moses earned were collected and held until James Grandy turned 21. Grandy helped build the Great Dismal Swamp Canal and learned how to navigate boats. It was that skill that led him to be made commander of several boats that traveled the canal and Pasquotank River, transporting merchandise from Elizabeth City, North Carolina to Norfolk, Virginia. The position allowed him to be better fed, shod and dressed. Able to keep a portion of his earnings, Grandy arranged to buy his freedom twice and twice his owners kept the money and held him in slavery. An arrangement was made for an honorable man to buy him and Grandy earned the money to buy his freedom a third time, this time successfully. In the course of his life he had witnessed beatings and sales of family members, including his first bride when they were married but eight months. Once he obtained his freedom, he worked to make the money to free his wife and children. He was able to secure the release of his wife and 15-year-old son. He dictated a narrative of his life, Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy, Late a Slave in the United States of America, with the intention of buying the freedom of additional family members. His slave narrative, and others, read in the United States and overseas, helped to bring awareness of slavery and fuel the abolitionist movement. Moses Grandy was hired out by James Grandy when he was 10. The second man he worked for, Jeremy Coate, beat him so severely for not hilling corn as he wanted it that the sapling broke off in his side. Enoch Sawyer, an owner of large tracts of land in Pasquotank and Camden Counties, fed him so little that Grandy ground cornhusks into flour for food. By 15 he was managing ferry crossings of a swampy river in Camden, North Carolina at Sawyer's Ferry[6] (later Lamb's Ferry);[7] He was "in charge of poling and sculling and cabling the ferry". He lived on Sawyer's plantation, placed his bare feet in heated mud from the hog's nighttime slumber for warmth, and visited his mother who lived in a cabin in a remote area, non-arable land outside of Camden after she became "too infirm to work". The money that was made through Moses Grandy's work was received and held for James Grandy until he turned 21 years of age. Moses Grandy worked jobs transporting goods to Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia and running boats and cutting timber for the Great Dismal Swamp Canal. Although well-skilled at managing craft on the river, he also worked for a time as a field hand and a look-out for his gambling boss. Several bosses after Sawyer, Grandy worked for a man named Richard Furley who allowed Grandy to take on extra work, working nights and Sundays, taking a share of the receipts. James Grandy called in all the slaves he had rented out to others and allowed Grandy to continue doing extra work, but took twice as much as Furley's percentage of the receipts.