Samuel Hall

Samuel Hall (1818 - ?) tells his life story in first person in this public domain work: "Samuel Hall, 47 Years a Slave: A Brief Story of His Life Before and After Freedom Came to Him". This origin story is a raw and truthful depiction of the life of a slave in the United States. His story tells of his parents from Liberia to his birth to family separations, to work, to marriage, to children, to losing it all, to fighting in the Civil War for the South and delivering intelligence to the Union...See more

Samuel Hall (1818 - ?) tells his life story in first person in this public domain work: "Samuel Hall, 47 Years a Slave: A Brief Story of His Life Before and After Freedom Came to Him". This origin story is a raw and truthful depiction of the life of a slave in the United States. His story tells of his parents from Liberia to his birth to family separations, to work, to marriage, to children, to losing it all, to fighting in the Civil War for the South and delivering intelligence to the Union army, to the chance for revenge, and then, with the end of the war, to freedom. He lived the second half of his life in Washington, Iowa, surrounded by good friends, and family, bought a farm, and raised children. Orville Elder says in this book about his life "He has always been highly respected by those who knew him and those who have known him intimately know that he is made of the kind of stuff that heroes are built from. In authorizing the publication of this short story of his life he did it, not because he felt that his life was entitled to any greater publicity than the lives of thousands of others, but because he wanted to express in some public way the great sense of gratitude which he feels toward the people of the community in which he has lived his free life." See less