Octavia Albert
Octavia Victoria Rogers Albert, commonly known as Octavia Albert, was born in 1853 in Oglethorpe, Georgia, and experienced life as a slave until the Emancipation Proclamation freed her. Driven by a desire for education, she attended Atlanta University and became a teacher. During her early years, she joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, influenced by Bishop Henry McNeal Turner. In 1874, she married A. E. P. Albert, a fellow teacher and ordained minister, and the couple later relocated to Houma, Louisiana. While there, Octavia Albert conducted interviews with former slaves to document their experiences and the brutality of slavery, culminating in a collection titled *The House of Bondage: Or, Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves*. Although she passed away before the work was published, it was later serialized by the Southwestern Christian Advocate in 1890. Albert’s legacy is significant for its contribution to understanding the lived experiences of enslaved individuals and the complexities of post-emancipation life.
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Octavia Albert
Writer
- Born: December 24, 1853
- Birthplace: Oglethorpe, Georgia
- Died: c. 1889
Biography
Octavia Victoria Rogers Albert, known more commonly as Octavia Albert, was born into slavery in Olgethorpe, Georgia, in 1853. She lived the life of a slave until the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Like many freed slaves, she had a voracious appetite for learning and eventually attended Atlanta University, where she studied to become a teacher. While she was still a resident of Ogelthorpe, Albert joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, led by Bishop Henry McNeal Turner.
After receiving her degree, Albert went to Montezuma, Georgia, to teach. In 1874, when she was about twenty-one years old, she met and married another teacher, A. E. P. Albert, who became an ordained minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Not long after their marriage, the Alberts moved Houma, Louisiana. Soon after their arrival, Albert began conducting interviews with former slaves, and these interviews were combined into a single volume of first-hand accounts of the horrors of slavery called The House of Bondage: Or, Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves. Unfortunately, Albert did not live long enough to see her work published. Shortly after her death, the New Orleans- based Methodist Episcopal Church newspaper, the Southwestern Christian Advocate, serialized her work from January to December, 1890.