Autobiography of a Female Slave

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First published anonymously in 1857, this special annotated edition of a significant work includes art from the 1957 publication, a detailed biography and photograph of author Martha Griffith Browne, and two appendices: one providing an overview of slavery in the United States and another detailing a chronology of slavery and Browne's influence. For the first time, it features a complete index and table of contents. The narrative begins with a harrowing account of brutal treatment by a master, illustrating the horrors of slavery. The author, Mattie Griffith, poses as a slave to expose the injustice of slavery, recounting her experiences as Ann, a former servant. After being sold to a cruel master at twelve, she witnesses the cruelty of slave life on a Kentucky plantation. Following the master's death, she serves a daughter in the city, where she finds friendship and love, ultimately being emancipated by an elderly Bostonian. Despite its commercial failure, the book was praised in the abolitionist movement. Griffith, born in Kentucky and inheritor of slaves, moved north out of loathing for slavery. She wrote to finance the emancipation of her slaves, remaining an activist for abolition, women's suffrage, and temperance until her death in 1906. This reproduction acknowledges potential imperfections from the original text but aims to preserve its cultural significance.