FootNote
The new kid on the block, FootNote is known for digitizing historical
documents... many of which are genealogical gems. With naturalizations,
city directories, war records, newspapers, town records, etc... this new
kid is quickly being recognized as an alternative to Ancestry.
While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
I have been solicited by
very many friends, to give my narrative to
the public. Whatever my own judgment might
be, I should yield to theirs. In compliance,
therefore, with this general request, and in
the hope that these pages may produce an
impression favorable to my countrymen in
bondage; also that I may realize something
from the sale of my work towards the support
of a numerous family, I have committed this
publication to press. It might have been
made two or three, or even six times larger,
without diminishing from the interest of any
one of its pages—indeed with an increased
interest—but the want of the pecuniary
means, and other considerations, have
induced me to present it as here seen.
Should another edition be called for, and
should my friends advise, the work will then
be extended to a greater length.
I have not, in this publication attempted or
desired to argue anything. It is only a
simple narration of such facts connected
with my own case, as I thought would be most
interesting and instructive to readers
generally. The facts will, I think, cast
some light upon the policy of a slaveholding
community, and the effect on the minds of
the more enlightened, the more humane, and
the Christian portion of the southern
people, of holding and trading in the bodies
and souls of men.
I have said in the following pages, that my
condition as a slave was comparatively a
happy, indeed a highly favored one; and to
this circumstance is it owing that I have
been able to come up from bondage and relate
the story to the public; and that my wife,
my mother, and my seven children, are here
with me this day. If for any thing this side
the invisible world, I bless heaven, it is
that I was not born a plantation slave, nor
even a house servant under what is termed a
hard and cruel master.
It has not been any part of my object to
describe slavery generally, and in the
narration of my own case I have dwelt as
little as possible upon the dark side—have
spoken mostly of the bright. In whatever I
have been obliged to say unfavorable to
others, I have endeavored not to overstate,
but have chosen rather to come short of
giving the full picture—omitting much which
it did not seem important to my object to
relate. And yet I would not venture to say
that this publication does not contain a
single period which might be twisted to
convey an idea more than should be
expressed.
Those of whom I have had occasion to speak,
are regarded, where they are known, as among
the most kind men to their slaves. Mr.
Smith, some of whose conduct will doubtless
seem strange to the reader, is sometimes
taunted with being an abolitionist, in
consequence of the interest he manifests
towards the colored people. If to any his
character appear like a riddle, they should
remember that, men, like other things, have
"two sides," and often a top and a bottom in
addition.
While in the South I succeeded by stealth in
learning to read and write a little, and
since I have been in the North I have
learned more. But I need not say that I have
been obliged to employ the services of a
friend, in bringing this Narrative into
shape for the public eye. And it should
perhaps be said on the part of the writer,
that it has been hastily compiled, with
little regard to style, only to express the
ideas accurately and in a manner to be
understood.
Lunsford Lane
Boston, July 4, 1842.
The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly
of Raleigh, N.C., 1842
