I Was Born A Slave - An Anthology Of Classic Slave Narratives Volume 1 - 1722-1849

I Was Born a Slave – An Anthology of Classic Slave Narratives, Volume 1: 1722–1849 (1999) by Yuval Taylor (Payback Press), ISBN: 9780862419035 — Condition: Fine — as sold by Crappy Old Books

Before the Civil War, before emancipation, before America could even begin to reckon with its original sin, enslaved men and women were already writing their own testimonies—memoirs, confessions, appeals, and witness accounts that refused to let their humanity be denied. Yuval Taylor’s I Was Born a Slave – Volume 1: 1722–1849 (Payback Press, 1999) collects these voices in one place, offering the earliest, rawest narratives of bondage and survival.

This anthology includes some of the first printed accounts by people who endured slavery in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Each story is different—some are deeply spiritual, others pragmatic, others urgent calls to abolition—but all carry the weight of lived experience. Reading them is less like leafing through “history” than like having someone from 200 years ago sit across the table and tell you exactly what they went through. It’s arresting, humbling, and unforgettable.

Now, about the copy itself: it’s in Fine condition. Which, for a 1999 paperback, is a little victory of its own. The cover is clean, the spine uncreased, the pages bright and tight. No classroom scrawls, no fluorescent highlighting trying to outshine the prose, and no mystery coffee stains shaped like Abraham Lincoln’s profile. Just pure, preserved access to the words as they were meant to be read.

And yes—it comes from Crappy Old Books, which means you get all the charm of a second-hand treasure without the “crappy” bit. Around here, “Fine” isn’t just a grading; it’s practically an understatement.

Volume 1 pairs perfectly with Volume 2, but even on its own, it’s a time machine in paperback: a chorus of voices from 1722–1849 that still speak with urgency today. Heavy in subject, vital in content, and unexpectedly Fine in form—what more could you ask from a book with such a title?

Keep browsing: See more History books Other books by Yuval Taylor