A Narrative of Some Remarkable Incidents in the Life of Solomon Bayley, Formerly a Slave in the State of Delaware, North America by Solomon Bayley

First published: 1825

Type of work: Slave narrative

Time of work: 1770’s-1824

Locale: Virginia and Delaware

Principal Personages:

• Solomon Bayley, an escaped slave
• Thamar Bayley, Solomon’s wife and a former slave of Mr. Melson
• Spence Bayley, son of Solomon and Thamar
• Margaret Bayley, daughter of Solomon and Thamar
• Leah Bayley, daughter of Solomon and Thamar

Form and Content

Solomon Bayley, a former slave, is one of the earliest antebellum African American spiritual writers. His somewhat disjointed, two-part narrative begins with a preface by Robert Hurnard, a Quaker and abolitionist from Essex, England, who met Bayley in Delaware in 1820. Having heard Bayley’s account of his escape from slavery, Hurnard persuaded him to write his life story. The publication of this narrative was intended in part to generate income for the aged and by then childless Bayley and his wife, but the narrative was also designed to place slavery in a poor light.

Bayley came from a family with deep American roots. His grandmother had been transported from West Africa to Virginia at the age of eleven and sold to a brutal family. She gave birth to fifteen children, some of whom were transported to Delaware. Bayley grew to adulthood before being brought to Virginia. In his autobiographical narrative, he does not mention that his father, brother, and sister were subsequently taken to the Caribbean. His mother ultimately ran away with Bayley’s infant brother and escaped to freedom in New Jersey.

Bayley begins his tale with a tribute to the power and goodness of God. Born in Kent County, Delaware, Bayley is moved against his will along with his parents and siblings—but without his wife and children—when his master takes the group to Alexandria, Virginia. Under Delaware law, slaveholders taking slaves out of the state were not permitted to put them up for immediate sale, but the Bayley family is sold soon after they arrive. Bayley brings suit to gain emancipation, but, two days before the hearing is to take place, he is shipped to Richmond, Virginia, put in irons, and thrown in jail. After a short stay that tests his faith in God, Bayley is placed in a wagon and shipped southward, farther away from his wife, his children, and his chance at freedom. Trusting in the Lord, Bayley jumps from the wagon and hides in some bushes. His captors conduct a brief, futile search before resuming their trek with the other Deep-South-bound slaves. Bayley then expresses his regret for sinning against God, who could have spared him his troubles.

When night comes, Bayley leaves the bushes and begins to walk, but he is chased by dogs. God saves him by sending a thunderstorm that assists his escape. After a few days on the road, Bayley arrives in Richmond, where a black man pretends to be his friend while alerting slave catchers to his presence. God answers Bayley’s prayers, however, and the slave catchers miss their prey. Bayley makes his way to Petersburg, Virginia, where he and another escaped slave take a boat down the James River to the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The other man tastes freedom briefly, before slave catchers find him and beat him to death when he tries to again escape. Bayley resolves to leave the state of Virginia and bring suit in Dover, Delaware, for his freedom. Suspicious of several white men, Bayley is saved from capture by the power of God.

The second part of the narrative begins in 1799, when Bayley arrives in Camden, Delaware. His master discovers him and offers to allow Bayley to purchase his freedom. Bayley argues that it is right for him to be free and that he should not need to buy what is rightfully his. Pressed by his master as to who he blames for his troubles, Bayley refuses to accept responsibility; he says that the laws of the land make liberty the right of every man and he could not be wrong in trying to achieve it. Ultimately, Bayley purchases his freedom for $80 and drops his lawsuit.

Much of the remaining narrative is devoted to Bayley’s belief that God is rich in mercy, even toward great sinners like himself. He returns to his explication of events, to narrate his purchase of his wife, Thamar, out of slavery. Unwilling to live in sin, the couple officially marries. Further difficulties await the couple, as Bayley negotiates the purchase of his son, who was born into bondage. He closes his narrative with a tribute to the “Father of Mercy.” In addendums to the tale, Bayley gives a history of his family and relates the deaths of both of his daughters.

Critical Context

All the writings by African Americans, beginning with Phillis Wheatley in the eighteenth century, demonstrated that black people were the intellectual equals of white people. Slave narratives further demonstrated the inhumanity of treating slaves as if they were no better than livestock. Accordingly, Bayley’s writings helped advance the cause of abolition in the United States and Great Britain.

In the slave narrative, American writers contributed a new form of literature to the world. These autobiographies were calculated to exert a very wide influence on public opinion. As abolitionists later noted, slavery from the side of the master was well known, but slavery from the side of the victim was not. The justifications advanced for the continuation of slavery were challenged by Bayley’s narrative. He did not benefit from slavery, and he desperately sought freedom for himself and his family. Many slave narratives were published, but Bayley’s was one of the earliest, placing him alongside Wheatley, David Walker, and Olaudah Equianao as part of the first generation of African American writers.

Bibliography

Andrews, William L. To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986. Sets Bayley’s work in the context of the earliest African American writers.

Foster, Frances Smith. Witnessing Slavery: The Development of Antebellum Slave Narratives. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994. Argues that slave narratives were not literal descriptions of reality but instead adhered to popular literary conventions.

Lee, A. Robert. Designs of Blackness: Mappings in the Literature and Culture of Afro-Americans. Sterling, Va.: Pluto, 1998. Although there are no specific references to Bayley’s work, this book sets slave narratives in historical and cultural context.

McBride, Dwight A. Impossible Witnesses: Truth, Abolitionism, and Slave Testimony. New York: New York University Press, 2001. Argues that white and black people in the antebellum United States possessed different definitions of truth.

Pierce, Yolanda. Hell Without Fires: Slavery, Christianity, and the Antebellum Spiritual Narrative. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2005. One of the few books to focus on Bayley’s work, this book examines the spiritual and earthly results of conversion to Christianity for African American antebellum writers.

Smith, Valerie. Self-Discovery and Authority in Afro-American Narrative. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987. Asserts that when they write their autobiographies, black writers claim an authority that they have not until then possessed in their lives.

Williams, William H. Slavery and Freedom in Delaware, 1639-1865. Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 1996. Historical study of laws regarding slavery in Delaware. Provides crucial context for understanding Bayley’s lawsuit, as well as other aspects of his narrative.