Slave narratives

Here is a sampling of slave narratives from Toronto Public Library's Digital Archive, which provides access to rare historical pictures, maps, manuscripts, ephemera and digitized books from the library's Special Collections for research, study and discovery.

• Henson, Josiah (1789-1883). The life of Josiah Henson, formerly a slave . London: Charles Gilpin, 1852.
• Mitchell, W. M. (William M.). The under-ground railroad . London: William Tweedie, 1860.
• Roper, Moses. Narrative of the adventures and escape of Moses Roper from American slavery, with an appendix containing a list of places visited by the author in Great Britain and Ireland and the British Isles, and other matter. Brantford: Printed by T. Lemmon & son, 1849.
• Steward, Austin (b. 1794). Twenty-two years a slave, and forty years a freeman, embracing a correspondence of several years while president of Wilberforce colony, London, Canada West . Rochester: William Alling, 1857. (TPL 3763)
• Ward, Samuel Ringgold (b. 1817). Autobiography of a fugitive negro, his anti-slavery labours in the United States, Canada & England. London: John Snow, 1855.
• Still, William (1821-1902). The underground rail road . Philadelphia: People's Pub. Co., [1879?].

If you would like to extend your research, search Toronto Public Library's website for more books and other material on the folowing topics: 

• Antislavery movements
• Blacks--Canada
• Fugitive slaves
• Underground Railroad

You can narrow your search by clicking on the links at the left of the screen. Digitized material in our Digital Archive appear at the top left-hand side of your search results.