Kidnapped and the Ransomed

by Kate E.R. Pickard

Originally published in 1856, The Kidnapped and the Ransomed is the personal recollection of Peter Still, a black slave. He was stolen as a child from his home in New Jersey, yoked to servitude for more than forty years in Kentucky and Alabama, and finally freed with the help of a pair of Jewish brothers. It is the only nineteenth-century slave narrative to show the participation of the Jews in the antislavery movement before the Civil War.The reader follows Still through a succession of brutal masters, a clandestine courtship, marriage involving separation, births and deaths, the formation of a daring plan for freedom, and harrowing action. No stage drama could be as wrenching as this true rendering of a slave’s experience in America. Kate E. R. Pickard was in contact with Still while she taught at the Female Seminary in Tuscumbia, Alabama.Maxwell Whiteman was the archival and historical consultant for the Union League of Philadelphia and coauthor, with Edwin Wolf II, of The History of the Jews of Philadelphia from Colonial Times to the Age of Jackson. The original introduction by Rev. Samuel J. May, an abolitionist, has been retained.

Genres: History, Biography

409 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1956

Reviews

[Diana Long]

This was an incredible and heart breaking story about two young boys, born free and then kidnapped and sold into slavery. Another one of the stories from the Mega Collection of Slave Narratives.

[Edward Janes]

Such an incredible story and when coupled to the works of Dr James Still and a third brother, William, the reader has a fair appreciation for the incredible nature of this family. A very important account and one every American should be familiar with.

[allison]

I can’t even put it into words. truly an incredible story and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

[Schvenn]

Heartbreaking, as all stories of slavery are, but enlightening and well written.

[Miriam]

I narrated this on tape for the Jewish Braille Institute and it was extremely moving.