author
Moses Grandy
Born into slavery in North Carolina, he won his freedom and turned his life story into a powerful argument against slavery. His narrative offers a firsthand look at family separation, hard labor, and the determination it took to survive and resist.
1 Audiobook
About the author
For more than forty years, Moses Grandy lived in slavery in North Carolina before finally securing his freedom. He worked in harsh conditions, including on the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, and later became known as a skilled seaman.
After reaching freedom, he moved north and joined the antislavery cause. His book, Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy, Late a Slave in the United States of America, was published in the 1840s and helped bring personal testimony about slavery to a wider audience.
What makes Grandy's story so memorable is its directness. He wrote not as a distant observer, but as someone describing the selling apart of families, repeated struggles to buy freedom, and the everyday cruelty of slavery in his own life.