Life and adventures of Robert, the hermit of Massachusetts
Subtitle: who has lived 14 years in a cave, secluded from human society ...
Contributors: Trumbull, Henry, 1781-1843; Southworth, Sylvester S. (Sylvester Simmons), 1798-1872; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: African Americans; Biography; Recluses; Slaves; Fugitive slaves; Sailors
Other titles: Robert, the hermit of Massachusetts; North American slave narratives.
Description: Robert was born a slave in Princeton, New Jersey in 1769 or 1770.  His father was an English gentleman.  At the age of four, he was given to his owner₂s son-in-law and moved to Georgetown, the District of Columbia.  As an adult, Robert fell in love with a woman in Maryland and arranged for a friend to buy him, with the understanding that Robert would live as a free man and would pay back the friend, with interest.  He married and had two children.  Robert₂s friend betrayed him and sold him to slave traders in Charleston, South Carolina.  Robert escaped once and was captured.  He escaped a second time to Salem, Massachusetts, where he became a sailor.  Over the next 20 years he sailed from Salem and then Providence, Rhode Island.  He returned to Maryland to find his wife and children and found that she had committed suicide shortly after he was sold, and that his children had died.  Robert returned to Providence, and became a hermit in a cave just across the state line in Massachusetts.
Notes: Title from TEI header.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digitization project's database, Documenting the American South, beginnings to 1920.  It is a part of the collection North American slave narratives.

Text scanned (OCR) by Bethany Ronnberg. Images scanned by Bethany Ronnberg. Text encoded by Natalia Smith.

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Transcribed from: Life and adventures of Robert, the hermit of Massachusetts : who has lived 14 years in a cave, secluded from human society. Comprising, an account of his birth, parentage, sufferings, and providential escape from unjust and cruel bondage in early life, and his reasons for becoming a recluse. Taken from his own mouth, and published for his benefit. Providence : printed for H. Trumbell, 1829. 36 p. : ill. Also published with slight variations, under title: Life and adventures of Robert Voorhis, the hermit of Massachusetts [etc.] Providence, 1829. Generally ascribed to the publisher, to whom copyright is entered as proprietor; also to Sylvester S. Southworth. CA. Sabin.

Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities supported the electronic publication of this title.

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