THIRTY YEARS A SLAVE

From Bondage to Freedom.

THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY AS SEEN ON THE PLANTATION AND IN THE HOME OF
THE PLANTER.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF LOUIS HUGHES.







PREFACE.

The institution of human slavery, as it existed in this country, has
long been dead; and, happily for all the sacred interests which it
assailed, there is for it no resurrection. It may, therefore, be asked
to what purpose is the story which follows, of the experiences of one
person under that dead and accursed institution? To such question, if it
be asked, it may be answered that the narrator presents his story in
compliance with the suggestion of friends, and in the hope that it may
add something of accurate information regarding the character and
influence of an institution which for two hundred years dominated the
country--exercising a potent but baneful influence in the formation of
its social, civil and industrial structures, and which finally plunged
it into the most stupendous civil war which the world has ever known. As
the enlightenment of each generation depends upon the thoughtful study