children, and are well calculated to excite their attention, inform their
understanding, and improve them in the art of reading, the greatest care
has been observed to render the style easy, the language comprehensive,
and the description natural. Prolixity has been studiously avoided. The
line of distinction between virtue and vice has been rendered distinctly
visible; and chastity of expression and sentiment have received due
attention. Strict fidelity has been observed in the composition:
consequently, no circumstance has been intentionally exaggerated by the
paintings of fancy, nor by fine flashes of rhetoric: neither has the
picture been rendered more dull than the original. Without the aid of
fiction, what was received as matter of fact, only has been recorded.

It will be observed that the subject of this narrative has arrived at
least to the advanced age of eighty years; that she is destitute of
education; and that her journey of life, throughout its texture, has been
interwoven with troubles, which ordinarily are calculated to impair the
faculties of the mind; and it will be remembered, that there are but few
old people who can recollect with precision the circumstances of their
lives, (particularly those circumstances which transpired after middle
age.) If, therefore, any error shall be discovered in the narration in
respect to time, it will be overlooked by the kind reader, or charitably
placed to the narrator's account, and not imputed to neglect, or to the
want of attention in the compiler.

The appendix is principally taken from the words of Mrs. Jemison's
statements. Those parts which were not derived from her, are deserving
equal credit, having been obtained from authentic sources.

For the accommodation of the reader, the work has been divided into
chapters, and a copious table of contents affixed. The introduction will