Rambles of a runaway from southern slavery / Henry Goings ; edited by Calvin Schermerhorn, Michael Plunkett, and Edward Gaynor.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

My birth and birth place in Virginia. My name, Elijah Turner. Changes from one master to another. In North Carolina. Tennessee. Alabama. Georgia. Mississippi. New Orleans. Emigrating from plantation to plantation. My marriage. Death of my last master -- My change of name and escape from slavery. Through Tennessee. Kentucky. Illinois. Indiana. Ohio to Michigan. Employed at various places, and at Perryburg (Ohio) -- Landed in Canada. Nearly victimized into slavery again. Returns after his wife. Trial at Perryburg. Escape to Canada. Marriage of second wife -- Observations on slavery. The present war. The Church. The Irish orator, Shiells -- Remarks on some of the southern states, and emigration to them -- Appendix -- Editors' appendices. Maps. Interviews with "Henry Gowens" and "Mrs. Henry Gowens". Letter to the editor, by Henry Goins. "Farm for sale" notice showing Henry Goings as sales agent.

Rambles of a Runaway from Southern Slavery tells of an extraordinary life in and out of slavery in the United States and Canada. Born Elijah Turner in the Virginia Tidewater, circa 1810, the author eventually procured freedom papers from a man he resembled and took the man's name, Henry Goings. His life story takes us on an epic journey, traveling from his Virginia birthplace through the cotton kingdom of the lower South, and upon his escape from slavery, through Tennessee and Kentucky, then on to the Great Lakes region of the North and to Canada. His Rambles show that slaves were found not only in fields but also on the nation's roads and rivers, perpetually in motion in massive coffles or as solitary runaways. A freedom narrative as well as a slave narrative, this compact yet detailed book illustrates many important developments in antebellum America, such as the large-scale forced migration of enslaved people from long-established slave societies in the eastern United States to new settlements on the cotton frontier, the political-economic processes that framed that migration, and the accompanying human anguish. Goings's life and reflections serve as important primary documents of African American life and of American national expansion, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. This edition features an informative and insightful introduction by Calvin Schermerhorn.

Print version record.

English.

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