Exhibit:

Richard Barrett's Story of an Escaped Slave (early 1800s)

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Richard Barrett (1789-1839) was a cousin of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's father, Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett. Richard Barrett was a prominent political figure for much of his life, speaking in Britain's Parliament on behalf of the Jamaican legislature on matters concerning slavery and emancipation. Though he defended the interests of the slaveholders at the time of the Abolition Act (1833) and was himself the owner of two sugar plantations in St. James, he had a reputation for nonviolence towards the enslaved people who worked on the family's land and called for more humane practices by the masters. This reputation may have contributed to the sparing of at least two of the Barrett family's plantation houses, his own Greenwood Great House and Cinnamon Hill, owned by EBB's father, during the 1831-32 slave uprisings. Barrett shared this story of a runaway slave with the young EBB, who then used it as the inspiration for her narrative poem, "The African." 

Material sourced from The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Transcription sourced from Richard Barrett's Journal: New York and Canada, 1816 : Critique of the Young Nation by an Englishman Abroad  (1983) by Thomas Brott and Philip Kelley

Images in this Exhibit

Manuscript, Page 1

Page 1 of Richard Barrett's manuscript.
Accession #: n.d./137

Transcript: Austin was a creole negro slave, & lived on his master's property in the
Island of Jamaica. His good conduct had secured him the confidence
of several successive overseers, & he became the head-driver or black
overseer of the estate. His authority over his fellow negroes was great
both from his office, & his determined character: he was faithful to the
interests of his owner, without being oppressive to the slaves under his control:
they loved &...
Manuscript, Page 2

Page 2 of Richard Barrett's manuscript.
Accession #: n.d./137

Transcription: and plantain walks, till at length, as of by universal consent, he was per-
mitted to take without question whatever he had a fancy to. One day he
made his appearance in the plantain walk of the estate to which Austin
was attached, & told the watchman Davy, that the plantains that his
plantains were fit to gather, & that he would sup with him at night
when the moon was up. Davy knew very well that to invite himself
to supper, was Copperbottom's challenge...
Manuscript, Page 3

Page 3 of Richard Barrett's manuscript.
Accession #: n.d./137

Transcription: fight. Davy was old, infirm, & by nature a coward. But Austin knew that
a witness would be useful should Copperbottom fall in the conflict. They
had not been long concealed in the thick green of plantains, when they
heard the plantains falling at a distance from them, as well as the voices
of more than one rogue. Davy fell back—Austin crept silently round till
he had placed himself between the moon & the enemy, so as to have the
full advantage of her light...
Manuscript, Page 4

Page 4 of Richard Barrett's manuscript.
Accession #: n.d./137

Transcription: nose in all the African deformity of breadth gave him a fierce & forbid-
ding countenance: otherwise he was of stout make, & full four inches taller
than Austin. Copperbottom was [illegible] forty years of age, Austin scarcely
thirty five. The latter had now examined the strength of the enemy, there were
three persons opposed to him, for their leader had brought two comrades
(as notorious depredators tho' less courageous than himself) Ironsides & Brass-...