William Andrews, a historian, and Regina Mason, a great-great-great-granddaughter of William Grimes, talked about the book they edited, Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave (Oxford University Press, USA; revised edition July 31, 2008). William Grimes not only wrote and published the first fugitive slave narrative in American history, but did so without outside influences. The autobiography describes his escape from slavery and his life thereafter. This annotated edition includes pages from an original Grimes family Bible, transcriptions of the 1824 correspondence that set the terms for the author’s self-purchase in Connecticut (nine years after his escape from Savannah, Georgia), and much other material from their extensive historical and genealogical research. They showed slides during their presentations and responded to questions from members of the audience.

William Andrews is the author of To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865. Regina Mason has spent fifteen years researching her family genealogy.

“Recovering William Grimes, the First African American Fugitive Slave Narrator” was an event sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, a part of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. It was held at 4:30 p.m. in Luce Hall.