His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad - Softcover

Parker, John P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393317188 ISBN 13: 9780393317183

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998

Synopsis

"Surpasses all previous slave narratives...Usually we need to invent our American heroes. With the publication of Parker's extraordinary memoir, we seem to have discovered the genuine article." ―Joseph J. Ellis, Civilization

In the words of an African American conductor on the Underground Railroad, His Promised Land is the unusual and stirring account of how the war against slavery was fought―and sometimes won. John P. Parker (1827―1900) told this dramatic story to a newspaperman after the Civil War. He recounts his years of slavery, his harrowing runaway attempt, and how he finally bought his freedom. Eventually moving to Ripley, Ohio, a stronghold of the abolitionist movement, Parker became an integral part of the Underground Railroad, helping fugitive slaves cross the Ohio River from Kentucky and go north to freedom. Parker risked his life―hiding in coffins, diving off a steamboat into the river with bounty hunters on his trail―and his own freedom to fight for the freedom of his people.

About this title

Review:

John Parker was born a slave in Virginia but managed to buy his freedom. He hated the injustice of slavery, and so for about 20 years before the Civil War devoted his life to the dangerous work of helping other blacks escape to freedom. This is one of only a few accounts of a black American's fight against slavery in his own words. Unpublished for nearly a century, it brings to life the American frontier of the mid-18th century in as thrilling a fashion as any John Ford film or historical novel.

About the Author:

John P. Parker (1827 – 1900) was an American abolitionist, inventor, iron moulder and industrialist. He helped hundreds of slaves to freedom in the Underground Railroad based in Ripley, Ohio.

Stuart Seely Sprague was a professor in history at Morehead State University from 1968 to 1995. His areas of concentration included Appalachian history and African American studies.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0393317188
• ISBN 13: 9780393317183
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 168
• Editor: Sprague Stuart Seely