About Me

My name is Lim Jun Kiat ,

I do this blogger for my ICT assignment (History of USA).

Henry Bibb

Henry Bibb was born in Shelby County, Kentucky in 10th May, 1815. His father was state senator James Bibb. His mother, Mildred Jackson, a slave, worked on the plantation owned by Willard Gatewood, and had seven children.

As a child, Bibb saw his brothers and sisters sold to different slave owners. Bibb was hired out to various slave holders and had little contact with his mother.Bibb married in his late teens but was furious when his wife's owner forced her to become a prostitute. After making several attempts to escape he was finally successful in 1837. Six months later he returned and helped his family escape, but they were caught and sold to aplantation owner in Vicksburg, Ohio.Once again the family attempted to escape but were captured after being attacked by wolves. Bibb was then sold to a group of Native Americans. After escaping from them he began his long and unsuccessful attempt to rescue the rest of the family. 

In 1842 Bibb began lecturing on slavery and along with Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown, became one of the best known of the African American activists. Bibb also worked for the Liberty Party in Michigan. During one lecture tour he met Mary Miles of Boston and the couple married in June, 1848. The following year theAnti-Slavery Society published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave.

In January 1851, Bibb joined with Josiah Henson to form the Refugees' Home Colony in Canada for escaped slaves. He also established Canada's first African American newspaper, the Voice of the Fugitive. Martin Delaney, was one of the newspaper's regular contributors. During this period Bibb led the campaign to persuade fugitive slaves and free African Americans to settle in Canada. Henry Bibb died during the summer of 1854.

Charles Ball

Charles Ball, a slave from Maryland, was born in about 1780 . His grandfather was brought from Africa and sold as a slave. His mother was the slave of a tobacco planter. When the planter died when Ball was four years old, he family were sold separately. Ball stayed in Maryland but his mother went to Georgia and he never saw her again.

Ball was allowed to marry but in 1805 he was sold to a cotton plantation owner in South Carolina while his wife and children remained in Maryland. Ball made several attempts to escape but was captured and became another man's slave.

After a period in Georgia he escaped again and managed to get back to his previous home in Maryland. Unfortunately, his wife and children had been sold to a slave-owner in another state. He re-married and obtained a small farm until in about 1830 he was seized and returned to slavery in Georgia.

Ball managed to escape again and this time settled in Philadelphia. With the help of Isaac Fisher, a white lawyer, wrote his autobiography, The Life and Adventures of Charles Ball (1837). Afraid of being recaptured, Ball moved again and its is not known when and where he died.