|
Moses Grandy ( - unknown), was an African-American author, abolitionist, and, for more than the first four decades of his life, an enslaved person. At eight years of age he became the property of his playmate, James Grandy and two years later he was hired out for work. The monies Moses earned were collected and held until James Grandy turned 21. Grandy helped build the Great Dismal Swamp Canal and learned how to navigate boats. It was that skill that led him to be made commander of several boats that traveled the canal and Pasquotank River, transporting merchandise from Elizabeth City, North Carolina to Norfolk, Virginia. The position allowed him to be better fed, shod and dressed. Able to keep a portion of his earnings, Grandy arranged to buy his freedom twice and twice his owners kept the money and held him in slavery. An arrangement was made for an honorable man to buy him and Grandy earned the money to buy his freedom a third time, this time successfully. In the course of his life he had witnessed beatings and sales of family members, including his first bride when they were married but eight months. Once he obtained his freedom, he worked to make the money to free his wife and children. He was able to secure the release of his wife and 15-year-old son. He dictated a narrative of his life, ''Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy, Late a Slave in the United States of America'', with the intention of buying the freedom of additional family members. His slave narrative, and others, read in the United States and overseas, helped to bring awareness of slavery and fuel the abolitionist movement. == Early life == In the late 1700s, Moses Grandy was born in Camden County, North Carolina, into slavery. He was owned by Billy Grandy and raised with his children.〔 When he was about eight years old, Moes was inherited by James Grandy his playmate of the same age, who was his deceased master's son.〔 His family was separated when his siblings and father were sold. His mother hid some of her children at times to prevent them from being sold. Among the people that Grandy witnessed being beaten where his mother, a pregnant women, and a 12-year-old boy, who was beaten until he died. He was subject to beatings, and not having enough to eat, he was also half-starved.〔Mechal Sobel. ''(Teach Me Dreams: The Search for Self in the Revolutionary Era )''. Princeton University Press; September 2002. ISBN 0-691-11333-5. p. 127.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Moses Grandy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|