# Mary Prince

## Biography

Mary Prince was a pioneering author and abolitionist, born into slavery in Bermuda around 1788. Enduring brutal conditions and multiple sales across the Caribbean islands, including Grand Turk and Antigua, she eventually came to England in 1828 as a servant to her enslavers. There, she bravely left their service and found refuge with the Moravian church and the Anti-Slavery Society. Encouraged by abolitionist Thomas Pringle, Prince dictated her powerful life story to Susanna Strickland. Published in 1831 as *The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself*, it became the first autobiography by a Black woman to be published in Britain. Her vivid account exposed the horrors of slavery and became a vital tool for the growing abolitionist movement, influencing public opinion and contributing to the eventual passage of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Mary Prince's exact date of death remains unknown, but her legacy as a courageous voice for freedom endures.

## Books

- [The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave](https://samolit.com/books/96708)