The Life of Samuel Hall: A Slave For Forty-Seven Years

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

The autobiography of Samuel Hall with a forward by friend Orville Elder. The book has 45 pages and is saddle-stitched with a paper cover. The cover was printed on hand-made paper with black serif typeface and border design element. The front cover reads [THE LIFE OF Samuel Hall / WASHINGTON, IOWA / A Slave for Forty-Seven Years / BORN 1818]. The inside cover features an oval-shaped black-and-white photographic portrait of Hall. The title page reads [SAMUEL HALL / 47 YEARS A SLAVE / A BRIEF STORY OF HIS LIFE BEFORE AND AFTER FREEDOM CAME TO HIM]. The narrative story tells of Hall's life enslaved on a plantation in Iredell County, North Carolina where he received an education and religious instruction before being sold away from his wife and children to William Wallace, a plantation owner in Tennessee.

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