These narratives by four black women - Louisa Picquet, Susie King Taylor, Bethany Veney, and Nancy Prince - testify to their struggles to maintain dignity and independence in the hostile, and frequently violent, society of antebellum America. Picquet and Veney's reminiscence of slave life are complemented by Susie King Taylor's description of nursing for the Union during the Civil War, and Nancy Prince's travel writings (she visited Europe, Russia, and Jamaica). The common thread in these texts is resistance.

Introduction by: Anthony G. Barthelemy