Charles Ball
Encyclopedia
Charles Ball was an African-American slave from Maryland
, best known for his account as a fugitive slave, The Life and Adventures of Charles Ball (1837).
cotton planter, thus estranged from his wife and children who remained in Maryland. After several escapes and recaptures, he wrote his autobiography with the help of the white lawyer Isaac Fisher.
Ball's history/memoir is a fascinating realistic account of the life of slaves and slave-owners in the early 19th century, which he describes as "one long waste, barren desert, of cheerless, hopeless, lifeless slavery; to be varied only by the pangs of hunger, and the stings of the lash" (111). Recalling the brutal conditions in slave life, he describes the heartache of having family members sold away—as his mother and father were, and as he was separated from his wife and children, taken south chained to a line of other slaves. In one long account, Ball relates the story of a fellow slave who had been captured in Africa, and we learn of the horrific conditions on slave ships bound for the West. On this slave's journey, he recounts that 1/3 of the slaves on the ship died during the passage to Charleston, South Carolina. Ball also provides detailed accounts of the environments he lived in in the U.S., including the wide destruction of the arable land created by the over-planting of tobacco, and descriptions of other flora and fauna of the southern states; the terrible diet of slave life, with each given only a peck of dry corn each week, supplemented at times with a dried fish or bit of meat; the toil of slave life, with work from dawn to dusk much of the year, and with many slaves working with absolutely no clothes on their backs; of the differences between the lives of slaves and slave owners in the northern states of Maryland and Delaware, through the uplands and tidewater districts of Virginia, and into the deep south and the Carolinas, which he regarded with "the greatest dread;" suicide among slaves, which he claims was more common than is generally known--"What is life worth, amidst hunger, nakedness, and excessive toil," Ball writes, "under the continuously uplifted lash?" (50); and how some slave owners and their family members were in fact kind and accommodating with slaves, while others—in fact, mostly slave overseers, one who Ball describes as "a tiger in human form" (54)--were brutal and cruel, wielding whips and other weapons. Ball also holds forth about the development of the cotton gin
and how that invention affected slavery.
Ball also served the United States in the War of 1812
. By 1813, he had enlisted in Commodore Joshua Barney
's Chesapeake Bay Flotilla
and fought at the Battle of Bladensburg
on August 24, 1814. An excerpt from his account of the battle, which was a resounding defeat for the Americans:
"I stood at my gun, until the Commodore was shot down, when he ordered us to retreat, as I was told by the officer who commanded our gun. If the militia regiments, that lay upon our right and left, could have been brought to charge the British, in close fight, as they crossed the bridge, we should have killed or taken the whole of them in a short time; but the militia ran like sheep chased by dogs."
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, best known for his account as a fugitive slave, The Life and Adventures of Charles Ball (1837).
Biography
In 1805 he was sold to a South CarolinianSouth Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
cotton planter, thus estranged from his wife and children who remained in Maryland. After several escapes and recaptures, he wrote his autobiography with the help of the white lawyer Isaac Fisher.
Ball's history/memoir is a fascinating realistic account of the life of slaves and slave-owners in the early 19th century, which he describes as "one long waste, barren desert, of cheerless, hopeless, lifeless slavery; to be varied only by the pangs of hunger, and the stings of the lash" (111). Recalling the brutal conditions in slave life, he describes the heartache of having family members sold away—as his mother and father were, and as he was separated from his wife and children, taken south chained to a line of other slaves. In one long account, Ball relates the story of a fellow slave who had been captured in Africa, and we learn of the horrific conditions on slave ships bound for the West. On this slave's journey, he recounts that 1/3 of the slaves on the ship died during the passage to Charleston, South Carolina. Ball also provides detailed accounts of the environments he lived in in the U.S., including the wide destruction of the arable land created by the over-planting of tobacco, and descriptions of other flora and fauna of the southern states; the terrible diet of slave life, with each given only a peck of dry corn each week, supplemented at times with a dried fish or bit of meat; the toil of slave life, with work from dawn to dusk much of the year, and with many slaves working with absolutely no clothes on their backs; of the differences between the lives of slaves and slave owners in the northern states of Maryland and Delaware, through the uplands and tidewater districts of Virginia, and into the deep south and the Carolinas, which he regarded with "the greatest dread;" suicide among slaves, which he claims was more common than is generally known--"What is life worth, amidst hunger, nakedness, and excessive toil," Ball writes, "under the continuously uplifted lash?" (50); and how some slave owners and their family members were in fact kind and accommodating with slaves, while others—in fact, mostly slave overseers, one who Ball describes as "a tiger in human form" (54)--were brutal and cruel, wielding whips and other weapons. Ball also holds forth about the development of the cotton gin
Cotton gin
A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, a job formerly performed painstakingly by hand...
and how that invention affected slavery.
Ball also served the United States in the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. By 1813, he had enlisted in Commodore Joshua Barney
Joshua Barney
Joshua Barney was a commodore in the United States Navy, born in Baltimore, Maryland, who served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.-Revolutionary War:...
's Chesapeake Bay Flotilla
Chesapeake Bay Flotilla
For two years the United States had been fighting with Great Britain during War of 1812. The British fleet was marauding the Chesapeake Bay when Joshua Barney, a naval officer of the American Revolutionary War, assembled a motley collection of barges and gunboats known generally as the Chesapeake...
and fought at the Battle of Bladensburg
Battle of Bladensburg
The Battle of Bladensburg took place during the War of 1812. The defeat of the American forces there allowed the British to capture and burn the public buildings of Washington, D.C...
on August 24, 1814. An excerpt from his account of the battle, which was a resounding defeat for the Americans:
"I stood at my gun, until the Commodore was shot down, when he ordered us to retreat, as I was told by the officer who commanded our gun. If the militia regiments, that lay upon our right and left, could have been brought to charge the British, in close fight, as they crossed the bridge, we should have killed or taken the whole of them in a short time; but the militia ran like sheep chased by dogs."
External links
- Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball. New York: Published by John S. Taylor, 1837.
- Fifty Years in Chains, or, The Life of an American Slave. New York: H. Dayton; Indianapolis, Ind.: Asher & Co., 1859.