The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave (Slave Narratives)

The History of Mary Prince - A West Indian Slave To which is added, The Narrative of Asa-Asa - A Captured African with Footnotes.. Mary Prince (c. 1788-after 1833) was born in Devonshire Parish, Bermuda, to an enslaved family of African descent. While she was later living in London, her autobiography, The History of Mary Prince (1831), was the first account of the life of a black woman to be published in the United Kingdom. Belonging to the genre of slave narratives, this first-hand description of the brutalities of enslavement, released at a time when slavery was still legal in Bermuda and British Caribbean colonies, had a galvanising effect on the anti-slavery movement. It went through three printings in the first year. Prince had her account transcribed while living and working in England at the home of Thomas Pringle. a founder of the Anti-Slavery Society. She had gone to London with her master and his family in 1828 from Antigua.