The Blind African Slave: Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey BraceThe Blind African Slave recounts the life of Jeffrey Brace (né Boyrereau Brinch), who was born in West Africa around 1742. Captured by slave traders at the age of sixteen, Brace was transported to Barbados, where he experienced the shock and trauma of slave-breaking and was sold to a New England ship captain. After fighting as an enslaved sailor for two years in the Seven Years War, Brace was taken to New Haven, Connecticut, and sold into slavery. After several years in New England, Brace enlisted in the Continental Army in hopes of winning his manumission. After five years of military service, he was honorably discharged and was freed from slavery. As a free man, he chose in 1784 to move to Vermont, the first state to make slavery illegal. There, he met and married an African woman, bought a farm, and raised a family. Although literate, he was blind when he decided to publish his life story, which he narrated to a white antislavery lawyer, Benjamin Prentiss, who published it in 1810. Upon his death in 1827, Brace was a well-respected abolitionist. In this first new edition since 1810, Kari J. Winter provides a historical introduction, annotations, and original documents that verify and supplement our knowledge of Brace's life and times. |
From inside the book
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Page xii
... bestowed on him by his first master, Captain Isaac Mills, after a battle with a Spanish vessel in which Brace fired the first shot and received five wounds. “In consequence... the captain gave me the honorable nick-name of xii preface.
... bestowed on him by his first master, Captain Isaac Mills, after a battle with a Spanish vessel in which Brace fired the first shot and received five wounds. “In consequence... the captain gave me the honorable nick-name of xii preface.
Page xiii
... Mills was following the slaveholding tradition of bestowing an aristocratic name on a slave as a form of mockery. While readers familiar with Jeffrey Amherst's wretched treatment of Indians might find this nomenclature regrettable ...
... Mills was following the slaveholding tradition of bestowing an aristocratic name on a slave as a form of mockery. While readers familiar with Jeffrey Amherst's wretched treatment of Indians might find this nomenclature regrettable ...
Page 19
... Mills who had been engaged in the West India trade since at least 1755.10 While preparing to leave port, Mills placed Brace in the house of a sadistic man named Welch, who, ac- cording to Brace, “had a black wife and a white maid ...
... Mills who had been engaged in the West India trade since at least 1755.10 While preparing to leave port, Mills placed Brace in the house of a sadistic man named Welch, who, ac- cording to Brace, “had a black wife and a white maid ...
Page 27
... Mills's frigate carried forty-four guns. Because Brace was unable to understand English, Mills put him “among the mariners,” where he was “taught the military discipline by one William Burks, who taught me altogether by signs” (chapter ...
... Mills's frigate carried forty-four guns. Because Brace was unable to understand English, Mills put him “among the mariners,” where he was “taught the military discipline by one William Burks, who taught me altogether by signs” (chapter ...
Page 29
... Mills bestowed the name “Jeffrey” upon him because he, like Jeffrey Amherst, “possessed rather more courage than prudence” (chapter 7). After towing the captured Spanish vessel to Savannah, Georgia, Mills's ship sailed once again for ...
... Mills bestowed the name “Jeffrey” upon him because he, like Jeffrey Amherst, “possessed rather more courage than prudence” (chapter 7). After towing the captured Spanish vessel to Savannah, Georgia, Mills's ship sailed once again for ...
Contents
3 | |
A Note on the Text | 85 |
The Blind African Slave Or Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace | 87 |
Deeds of Manumission Drawn by William Welch | 185 |
Legal Documents Related to Jeffrey Braces Military Pension Application 18181821 | 193 |
Documents related to Jeffrey Braces Land Transactions and Estate | 217 |
A Brace Chronology | 223 |
Bibliography | 227 |
Other editions - View all
The Blind African Slave: Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace Jeffrey Brace No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
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