author
Kate Drumgoold
b. 1858
Born into slavery in Virginia around 1858 or 1859, this memoirist left behind a rare firsthand account of childhood, freedom, faith, and education after the Civil War. Her 1898 autobiography speaks in a direct, hopeful voice that still feels personal and immediate.
1 Audiobook
A Slave Girl's Story Being an Autobiography of Kate Drumgoold.
by Kate Drumgoold
About the author
Kate Drumgoold was an American autobiographer born into slavery near Petersburg, Virginia, around 1858 or 1859. She is known for A Slave Girl's Story: Being an Autobiography of Kate Drumgoold, published in 1898, a memoir that recounts her early life in slavery and the years that followed emancipation.
Her book is especially valued because it preserves a firsthand account from a Black woman who experienced both the rural South and life in New York. The narrative returns often to religion, schooling, family ties, and self-improvement, giving readers a personal view of how freedom and education shaped her life.
Not much about her later years seems to be firmly documented, and even her death date is uncertain. That makes her autobiography all the more important: it remains the clearest record of her voice, her experiences, and the world she survived.