Author: William Grimes

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

Excerpt from Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, Brought Down to the Present Time (1855)

In Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave, Brought Down to the Present Time, published in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1855, William Grimes updates his earlier narrative about his enslaved life in Virginia and his escape to freedom. Historians considered the 1825 publication to be the first fugitive slave narrative in American history. This later book duplicated the earlier with the addition of a short conclusion, included here.