Louis Hughes was born in Virginia (1832), but was sold (1844) in the Richmond slave market to a cotton planter and his wife who lived on the Mississippi River. Later, he traveled with them to their new home in Memphis, Tennessee, and spent time during the Civil War in Alabama. Hughes made five attempts to escape, alone and with his wife and friends, but he and his wife succeeded in finding freedom only after Emancipation. Eventually, after reuniting with several members of their family and seeking a livelihood in various Southern, Midwestern and Canadian cities (Memphis, Cincinnati, Hamilton, Windsor, Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland), they settled in Milwaukee, where Hughes became a nurse, drawing on skills he had developed while treating the illnesses of his fellow slaves. Thirty Years a Slave provides a great deal of information about the complex relationships between slaves and masters, along with graphic accounts of the physical abuse slaves endured, and details about slave markets, slave religion, and the organization of plantation work. Hughes also remembers the desire for learning he felt when he was a slave and recalls the varied tasks he performed in his masters' households.

Self-educated and eloquent, Hughes wrote and privately published this memoir in 1897. It is a compelling account, by turns searing and compassionate about slavery, slaves, and slave owners. CHAPTER I. LIFE ON A COTTON PLANTATION. BIRTH - SOLD IN A RICHMOND SLAVE PEN. A SLAVE MARKET. SLAVE WHIPPING AS A BUSINESS. SOLD IN THE MARKET. ON THE AUCTION BLOCK PRICE OF SLAVES. STARTED FOR A COTTON PLANTATION. MY MISSISSIPPI HOME. PLANTATION LIFE. THE GREAT HOUSE. HOUSE SERVANT AND ERRAND BOY. CRUEL TREATMENT. INSTRUCTIONS IN MEDICINE. THE OVERSEER - WHIPPINGS AND OTHER CRUELTIES. THE SLAVE CABIN. COTTON RAISING. THE COTTON WORM. THE COTTON HARVEST. PREPARING COTTON FOR MARKET. OTHER FARM PRODUCTS. FARM IMPLEMENTS. THE CLEARING OF NEW LAND. COOKING FOR THE SLAVES. CARDING AND SPINNING. WEAVING - CLOTHES OF THE SLAVES. SLAVE MOTHERS - CARE OF THE CHILDREN. METHODS OF PUNISHMENT. FOURTH OF JULY BARBECUE. ATTENDANCE AT CHURCH. RELIGIOUS MEETINGS OF THE SLAVES. A NEIGHBORHOOD QUARREL. CHAPTER II. SOCIAL AND OTHER ASPECTS OF SLAVERY. REMOVAL TO MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE. A NEW AND SPLENDID HOUSE. A FAMILY OF FREE PERSONS SOLD INTO SLAVERY. MY MARRIAGE - BIRTH OF TWINS. MADAM'S CRUELTY TO MY WIFE AND CHILDREN. EFFORTS TO LEARN TO READ AND WRITE. TOM STRIKES FOR LIBERTY AND GAINS IT. NEWS OF TOM'S REACHING CANADA. M'GEE EXPECTS TO CAPTURE TOM. MAKING CLOTHES. A SUPERSTITION. MEMPHIS AND ITS COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE. CHAPTER III. SLAVERY AND THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. BEGINNING OF THE WAR. PETTY DISRESPECT TO THE EMBLEM OF THE UNION. THE BATTLE OF SHILOH, APRIL 9, 1862. MOURNING IN MASTER'S FAMILY. ALARM OF THE MEMPHIS REBELS. THE FAMILY FLEE FROM MEMPHIS. I AM TAKEN TO BOLIVAR FARM. CAPTURE OF A UNION TRADING BOAT. BOSS TAKEN PRISONER. MY THIRD EFFORT FOR FREEDOM. REBELS BURN THEIR COTTON. MY FOURTH RUNAWAY TRIP. INCIDENTS. UNION RAID AT MASTER'S FARM. UNION SOLDIERS PASS THE PANOLA HOME. HIDING VALUABLES FROM THE YANKEES. DEATH TO RUNAWAY SLAVES. SLAVES HUNG AND LEFT TO ROT AS A WARNING. RUNAWAY SLAVE CAUGHT AND WHIPPED. A HOME GUARD ACCIDENTALLY SHOOTS HIMSELF. SUBSTITUTES FOR COFFEE. CHAPTER IV. REBELLION WEAKENING - SLAVES' HOPES STRENGTHENING. M'GEES SLAVES TAKEN TO ALABAMA. M'GEE'S GREAT SCHEME. M'GEE'S DEATH. I MAKE SOME MONEY. GOING BACK TO PANOLA. INCIDENTS. MY FIFTH STRIKE FOR FREEDOM IS A SUCCESS. GOING BACK FOR OUR WIVES. A HAZARDOUS TRIP. TWO BRAVE MEN. OUT OF BONDAGE AT LAST. A WORD FOR MY OLD MASTER. CHAPTER V. FREEDOM AFTER SLAVERY. COMING NORTH. IN CANADA. A CLEW TO MY BROTHER WILLIAM. WORK IN CHICAGO. ATTENDING NIGHT SCHOOL. I SETTLE IN MILWAUKEE. BEGIN BUSINESS FOR MYSELF IN A SMALL WAY. MEETING RELATIVES OF MY OLD MASTER. FINDING MY BROTHER WILLIAM. GROWTH OF THE LAUNDRY BUSINESS. EMPLOYED AS A NURSE. A TRIP SOUTH. I MAKE NURSING MY REGULAR BUSINESS.

The Academic Affairs Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill presents the full-text of "Thirty Years a Slave: From Bondage to Freedom: The Institution of Slavery as Seen on the Plantation and in the Home of the Planter," a narrative written by American slave Louis Hughes (1832-?) that was originally published in 1897. The online text is from "First-Person Narratives of the American South," a part of the "Documenting the American South (DAS)" collection of the Academic Affairs Library.

Thirty Years A Slave:From Bondage To Freedom:The Institution of Slavery As Seen on the Plantation in the Home of the Planter. By Louis Hughes