Moses Roper (1815-1891) an enslaved mixed-race man wrote one of the earliest books about being enslaved.

Roper was the son of a mixed-race enslaved woman and a white man who was their enslaver.  At age 7, Roper was separated from his mother when he was sold to another slave master.  He would be traded more than 17 times until finally he escaped in 1834 after suffering the brutal treatment of many of his enslavers.

He made his way to New York and then in 1835 he went to England.

Roper became a famous abolitionist speaking throughout England about his experience and the cruelties of American slavery.  In 1838, his book A Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper, from American Slavery was published.

Roper established a life for himself in England and Canada for the next several years.  He married in 1839 and the couple had four children.

In the 1860s, Roper returned to the United States and continued to lecture without much success.  He died in 1891 in very poor health.-Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.