Mary Prince author page

Mary Prince biography

Mary Prince was a Bermudian abolitionist and author whose narrative The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave. Related by Herself was published in London in 1831.

Prince was born into enslavement in Bermuda. Her narrative records forced labour, sale and punishment under several enslavers in Bermuda, the Turks Islands and Antigua before she was taken to England by the Wood family in 1828.

After leaving the Wood household, Prince came into contact with Moravian missionaries and with Thomas Pringle, secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society. She dictated her account to Susanna Strickland, and Pringle edited it for publication.

The book was published by F. Westley and A. H. Davis during the British abolition campaign. It drew attention to slavery in the Caribbean after Parliament had abolished the British slave trade but before slavery itself was abolished in most British colonies.

The History of Mary Prince is widely described as the first narrative by a Black woman to be published in Britain. Prince gave evidence in 1833 in libel proceedings connected with the book’s publication.