My life in the South
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 the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves 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. This new and enlarged edition of Stroyer's narrative, My Life in the South, expands upon earlier editions, and was written with the hope of generating enough income to complete his education.  The narrative covers his fifteen years in slavery providing information about his family, his life at his master's summer seat as well as 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 interactions with masters and slaves.
Notes: Title from electronic title page (viewed July 31, 2003)

This electronic edition has been transcribed from the book supplied by Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University Libraries.

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. Images scanned by Elizabeth S. Wright. Text encoded by Apex Data Services, Inc., Elizabeth S. Wright, and Natalia Smith.

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Transcribed from: My life in the South / by Jacob Stroyer. New and enl. ed., 3rd ed. Salem : Salem Observer Book and Job Print, 1885. 83 p. ; 20 cm.

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

Mode of access: Internet World Wide Web.

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