Moses Grandy

Born around 1786 in Camden County, North Carolina, Moses Grandy spent more than forty years enslaved before securing his freedom. As a child he was made the property of James Grandy, and later he was hired out for labor. He became an experienced boatman and helped build and navigate along the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, work that shaped much of the story he would later tell.

Grandy is best known for Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy, Late a Slave in the United States of America, first published in London in 1843 and later in Boston. Because he never learned to read or write, he dictated his story to the British abolitionist George Thompson. The book describes repeated betrayals, harsh treatment, and the extraordinary effort it took to purchase freedom for himself and members of his family.

His narrative mattered not only as autobiography, but also as abolitionist testimony. In plain, direct language, it preserved details of enslaved labor, family separation, and daily survival that might otherwise have been lost. Sources available here do not clearly confirm a portrait of him, and even the date of his death is uncertain.