The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave

Prince, also known by the name Molly, was a Black woman who was born enslaved on the island of Bermuda around 1788. She is the subject and narrator of History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave (1831). Prince holds great significance in the history of testimonies of enslaved people. She is the “first known Black woman to relate a slave narrative” (Maddison-MacFayden, Margôt. “Mary Prince”). Historically, the narrative of an enslaved person was an overwhelmingly male genre; its widely-read narrators include Frederick Douglass, Henry “Box” Brown, and Olaudah Equiano. However, Prince is not alone; she is joined, for example, by Harriet Jacobs, who is known for her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861).

In terms of this genre, Prince is also unique in that she hails from the West Indies. While many testimonies of enslaved people were collected in the Caribbean, the formal, standardized genre of abolitionist narrative as it is understood contemporarily was very centered on the experience of enslavement in the US. Prince’s text reflects certain West Indian modes and qualities of testimony. Professor Nicole Aljoe reads West Indian narratives of enslavement as part of the genre testimonio.