Wallace Turnage (c. 1846 – 1916) was an enslaved African American who recounted his story of repeatedly trying to escape brutal slaveowners before escaping to Union Army lines. He moved to New York City with his family and lived in economic poverty. He wrote a

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...

about his life. It was published for the first time in 2007. He was born in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, and was the son of a fifteen-year-old female slave and a white man. He was sold multiple times and made repeated attempts to run away, and succeeded. He lived in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, working as a waiter, janitor, glass blower, and finally as a watchman. His

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

was passed on to his daughter,

Lydia Turnage Connolly Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, the Lyd ...

(1885 – 1984). After her death, it was another 20 years before it was published. In 2007, Civil War historian David W. Blight published ''A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation'', the two men being Turnage and John M. Washington. A historic marker in

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...

, reads as follows:

References

1840s births 1916 deaths 19th-century American slaves Writers of slave narratives People enslaved in North Carolina 20th-century African-American people {{US-writer-stub