his autobiography.
[Library shelfmark: NF.1342.d.37].
Moses Roper (1815-1891) was born into chattel slavery in Caswell County, North Carolina, where he suffered unimaginable physical torture and psychological persecution before finally making his escape.
He went on to become a renowned freedom-fighter and social justice campaigner.
As early as 1836, a decade before Frederick Douglass arrived in Scotland, Roper toured Britain and gave speeches in which he denounced white slaveholding villainy.
Roper first published the story of his life, 'The Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper, From American Slavery' in Berwick-Upon-Tweed in 1839, a few years before the first U.S. edition of Frederick Douglass's Narrative appeared in 1845.
Discover more about the work of abolitionists in Scotland using the Library's resources about Scotland and the slave trade