Author: Martha Browne

Publisher:

Published: 2017-10-28

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 9781979231718

"I was born in one of the southern counties of Kentucky. My earliest recollections are of a large, old-fashioned farm-house, built of hewn rock, in which my old master, Mr. Nelson, and his family, consisting of a widowed sister, two daughters and two sons, resided. I have but an indistinct remembrance of my old master. At times, a shadow of an idea, like the reflection of a kind dream, comes over my mind, and, then, I conjure him up as a large, venerable-looking man, with scanty, gray locks floating carelessly over an amplitude of forehead; a wide, hard-featured face, with yet a kindly glow of honest sentiment; broad, strong teeth, much discolored by the continued use of tobacco." "Browne's depiction of slave owners' cruelty parallels that of Douglass and other African-American authors of autobiographical slave narratives. In one passage Browne, writing from the perspective of a slave named Ann, described how Ann's master, 'foaming with rage, dipped his cowhide in the strongest brine that could be made, and drawing it up with a flourish, let it descend upon [a slave's] uncovered back with a lacerating stroke. Heavens! what a shriek she gave! Another blow, another and a deeper stripe, and cry after cry came from the hapless victim!'...Browne published her narrative anonymously, and reviewers initially had no idea that the vivid writing was anything but autobiographical. Even after Browne's identity was revealed, critics continued to praise the tale. One reviewer for The Liberator asserted that the story was 'terribly sad and painful,' and that even if untrue in literal terms, 'it would do admirable service for the Abolitionists' by inspiring antislavery sentiments among readers.'" -The New York Times