"With a fiery, righteous rage, former slave Octavia Albert set about, after Emancipation, collecting the true stories of those that "terrible institution" affected most. That raw material gave rise to The House of Bondage, a refutation to Uncle Tom's Cabin, and an answer to other works of literature of the period that purported to show the horror of slavery even though their authors had never set foot in the South. First published in 1890, this is an important example of a sadly small genre: 19th-century literature by African-American women. With its straightforward and heartbreaking litany of cruelty at the hands of slaveowners, families forever divided, and the harsh effects of particularly hard labor, this is an unforgettable work that should be read by every American who thinks he knows his nation's history"--Amazon.com.

None but those who resided in the South during the time of slavery can realize the terrible punishments that were visited upon the slaves. Virtue and self-respect were denied them.-Octavia Albert in The House of BondageWith a fiery, righteous rage, former slave Octavia Albert set about, after Emancipation, collecting the true stories of those that "terrible institution" affected most. That raw material gave rise to The House of Bondage, a refutation to Uncle Tom's Cabin, and an answer to other works of literature of the period that purported to show the horror of slavery even though their authors had never set foot in the South. First published in 1890, this is an important example of a sadly small genre: 19th-century literature by African-American women.With its straightforward and heartbreaking litany of cruelty at the hands of slaveowners, families forever divided, and the harsh effects of particularly hard labor, this is an unforgettable work that should be read by every American who thinks he knows his nation's history.Teacher and social activist OCTAVIA V. ROGERS ALBERT (1853-c.1890) was born into slavery in Georgia; after Emancipation, she studied at Atlanta University.

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Decades after this celebrated work of narrative nonfiction won the National Book Award and changed the American conversation about race, Slaves in the Family is reissued by FSG Classics, with a new preface by the author. The Ball family hails from South Carolina—Charleston and thereabouts. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. Between 1698 and 1865, close to four thousand black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought by them. In Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves. Part historical narrative, part oral history, part personal story of investigation and catharsis, Slaves in the Family is, in the words of Pat Conroy, "a work of breathtaking generosity and courage, a magnificent study of the complexity and strangeness and beauty of the word ‘family.'"

Excerpt from The House of Bondage, or Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves: Original and Life-Like, as They Appeared in Their Old Plantation and City Slave Life; Together With Pen-Pictures of the Peculiar Institution, With Sights and Insights Into Their New Relations as Freedmen, Freemen, and Citizens An only daughter unites with the writer in sending out these pages penned by a precious and devoted mother and wife, whose angelic spirit is constantly seen herein, and whose subtle and holy influence seems to continue to guide and protect both in the path over which they since have had to travel without the pres ence and cheer of her inspiring countenance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.