Sketches of my life in the South
Subtitle: Part I
By: by Jacob Stroyer
Contributors: 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: 2001
Place of publication: Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Slaves; Biography; African Americans; Slavery; Social life and customs; Slaves' writings, American
Other titles: North American slave narratives.
Description: Jacob Stroyer was born a slave on the Singleton plantation near Columbia, South Carolina in 1849, and lived there until he was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1864. During the Civil War, he was sent to Sullivan's Island and Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, where he waited on Confederate officers.  While there, Stroyer learned to read.  Following his release from slavery, Jacob Stroyer settled in Salem, Massachusetts, and became minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church there. Stroyer wrote his narrative, Sketches of My Life in the South, in order to generate enough income to further his education. The narrative covers his fifteen years in slavery, providing information about his family and describing the physical abuse he endured at the hands of the Singleton plantation's overseer.  Stroyer also discusses the emotional strain that the slave trade put on his and other slave families and provides a series of brief anecdotes about slave life, culture, beliefs, and the interactions between masters and slaves.
Notes: Title from electronic title screen (viewed July 31st, 2003)

This electronic edition has been transcribed from a photocopy supplied by Harvard University Library.

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

Text transcribed by Apex Data Services, Inc. Text encoded by Lee Ann Morawski and Natalia Smith.

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Transcribed from: Sketches of my life in the south. Part I / by Jacob Stroyer. Salem : Salem Press, 1879. 51 p. ; 16 cm.

Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation supported the electronic publication of this title.

Mode of access: Internet World Wide Web.

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