Moses Roper (abt. 1815 - 1891)

Born about 1815 in Caswell, North Carolina, United States

Husband of Ann Stephen (Price) Roper — married 21 Dec 1839 in Bristol, England

Descendants

Died 15 Apr 1891 at about age 76 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: William Roper [send private message]

Biography

Moses Roper is a part of US Black heritage.

Moses Roper was the son of Henry Roper and Nancy, a slave owned by Henry's wife. He was born about 1815 in North Carolina.

This summary of Moses ROPER's life appears at the ROPER Family History Web Site of Dr. L. David ROPER, of Blacksburg, NC:

"Moses Roper b: ABT 1815 in Caswell Co., NC "A Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper from American Slavery: In the fall of 1835 Moses Roper, a fugitive slave, reached Liverpool after a long and harrowing flight that extended over a period of sixteen months. He was born in Caswell Co., NC and much of what he relates to his native state. Roper was almost put to death by his mother's mistress who discovered that her husband was the father of the white slave child. From boyhood to youth Roper was sold from master to master...Ten years after he was separated from his mother, he found his way back to Caswell Co...In July 1834 after serving a Florida master...he fled to Savannah [GA]...fraudulent papers...enabled him to obtain employment on a vessel bound for New York and New England...in November 1835 he set sail for Liverpool. Roper subsequently entered University College at London to prepare for missionary work in the West Indies...The first edition of Roper's narrative was published in London in 1837... I was born in NC, in Caswell Co., I am not able to tell in what year or month....A few months before I was born, my father married my mother's young mistress. As soon as my father's wife heard of my birth, she sent one of my mother's sisters to see whether I was white or black, and when my aunt had seen me, she returned back as soon as she could, and told her mistreess that I was white, and resembled Mr. Roper very much. Mr. R.'s wife being not pleased with this report, she got a large club stick and knife, and hastened to the place in which my mother was confined. She went into my mother's room with full intention to murder me with her knife and club, but as she was going to stick the knife into me, my grandmother happen- ing to come in, caught the knife and saved my life...my father sold her and myself soon after her confinement. I cannot recollect any thing that is worth notice till I was six or seven years old...I was at that time very white. Soon after I was six or seven years of age, my mother's old master died, that is, my father's wife's father... My resembling my father so very much, and being whiter than the other slaves, caused me to be soon sold to what they call a negro trader, who took me to the southern states...I was then about six... I was with Mr. Smith nearly a year. I arrived at the first knowledge of my age when I lived with him. I was then twelve and thirteen years old; it was when President Jackson was elected the first time [1828], and he has been president eight years [1837]. Here I began to enter into hardsips...This was the first time I attempted to run away, knowing that I should get a flogging. I was then between thirteen and fourteen years of age...Mr. Gooch ...put me into a swamp, to cut trees...I being but sixteen...In August 1831, (this was my first acquaintance with any date,)...I arrived at the estate of Mr. Crawford, in North Carolina, Mecklinburgh county...I deter- mined to..find out my poor mother, who was in slavery several hun- dred mils from Chester;...I was white at that time...my hair being curly and wooly...I got into Salisbury, having left Chester...On my way to Caswell Court House, a distance of nearly two hundred miles Salisbury...I took the road leading over to Ikeo Creek. I shortly came up with a little girl about six years old...On our way I asked her several questions, such as her name, that of her mother: she said hers was Maria, and her mother's Nancy. I inquired if her mother had any more children? She said five besides herself, and that they had been told that one had been sold when a boy. I then asked the name of this child? She said, it was Moses...recognizing in the little girl the person of my own sister. At last I got to my mother's house!...in an instant we were clasped in each other's arms...Ten years had elapsed since I had seen my dear mother...At night my mother's husband, a blacksmith, belonging to Mr. Jefferson, ...He had married to my mother when I was a babe, and had always been very fond of me...About twelve o'clock I was suddenly awoke, and found my bed surrounded by twelve slave-holders with pistols in hand..lodged me in the jail of Caswell Courthouse...I never after saw any of them more...my mother, who was in the family-way when I went home, was soon after confined, and was very long before she recovered the effects of this disaster...jailer's...wife had a great antipathy to me. She was Mr. Roper's wife's cousin. My grandmother used to come to me nearly every day, and bring me something to eat, ...my grandmother came to bid me farewell...how shall I describe my feelings upon parting with the last relative that I ever saw?...Mr. Gooch...It was about the beginning of 1832 when he took off my irons ...Mr. Beveridge, a Scotchman, from Appalachicola [FL] bought me...I met with better treatment than I had ever experienced before;...In year 1834, Mr. Beveridge, ...became a bankrupt,...Mr. Register,... savage character...in the month of July 1834, he bought me...I immediately resolved on making my escape...I am part African, as well as Indian and white, my father being a white man, Henry Roper, Esq., Caswell Co., NC,...a very wealthy slave-holder, who sold me when quite a child, for the strong resemblance I bore to him. My mother is part Indian, part African...In about two days we sailed Savannah to New York. I am (August 1834) unable to express the joy I felt...Hudson River, to Poughkeepsie...retuned to Albany...went up the northern canal into...Vermont...(footnote: a person in any of the states of America found harboring a slave, would have to pay a heavy fine.)...I went to New Hampshire, where I was not safe, so went to Boston, Massachusetts...I now had my head shaved and bought a wig...Brookline...I attended the colored church in Bellnap street; ...I found slave-owners were in the habit of to this colored chapel to look for runaway slaves...I went into the Green Mountains for several weeks, from thence to the city of New York,...I heard of a ship, the Napoleon, sailing to England, and on the 11th of November 1835, I sailed...The time I first started from slavery was July 1831 so that I was nearly sixteen months in making my escape...When I reached Liverpool...I went on to Manchester...then proceeded to London, December 12th, 1835...I expressed my wish to Dr. Cox to become a member of his church;...was admitted, March 31st, 1836.... Black Writers of America, A Comprehensive Anthology by Richard Barksdale and Kenneth Kinnamon, 1972: p.209: The Fugitive Slave Narative: Moses Roper (1816?-?): Little is known of Moses Roper beyond his own account in A Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper, from American Slavery (1837). Born about 1816 on a plantation in Caswell Co. in north-central NC, Roper was the very light-skinned son of a white man and a part-white, part-Indian, part-Black slave woman, owned by the father of the white man's financee. When Mrs. Roper later learned that Moses was the son of her husband by her own slave, in a jealous rage she attempted to murder the infant with a knife and a club. Soon afterward, the mother and child were sold, and a few years later they were separated. During childhood and youth, Roper was sold frequently. Traveling with his masters and often attempting to escape, he experienced and witnessed the cruelties of slavery in a large section of the Southeast: NC, SC, GA, and FL. After many abortive efforts, in July 1834 he finally successfully escaped to Savannah GA, where he signed as a steward on a coastal merchant vessel bound for NY. After brief stays in Poughkeepsie and Albany, NY, in Sudbury and Ludlow VT, in NH, and in Boston and Brookline MA, Roper sailed for England on 11 November 1835. Bringing to England letters of recommendation from American abolitionists bearing "unequivocal witness to his sobriety, intelligence, and honesty," Roper was aided by English friends in attaining an education designed to prepare him for missionary service in Africa. After the publication of his Narrative he attended University College, London, with the somewhat altered goal of propagating Christianity in the West Indies. Whether Roper went to Africa or the West Indies is not known. As late as 9 October 1839, he was still in England. Whatever destiny he finally found, his lasting contribution was the uncompromisingly vivid picture of American slavery he presented in his Narrative. The first American edition (1838) of Roper's Narrative, from which the present selection is taken, was reprinted in 1969 with a brief introduction by Maxwell Whiteman. Other details are given by Vernon Loggins in The Negro Author (1931). Roper is mentioned several times by Charles H.Nichols in Many Thousands Gone: The Ex-Slaves' Account of Their Bondage and Freedom (1963).

See: http://www.roperld.com/rnc18.htm

Sources

• Narrative of the adventures and escape of Moses Roper from American slavery, 3rd edition, by Moses Roper (London: Harvey and Darton, 1839). https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Narrative_of_the_Adventures_and_Escape/KlcN8bRy2mIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=&printsec=frontcover [visited 28 Dec 2022]

• "Summary of Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper, from American Slavery," by Harry Thomas [undated]. Documenting the American South [Digital Resource]. University of North Carolina. https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/roper/summary.html [visited 29 Jan 2021]

• "Canada Census, 1851," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWRP-D7K : 3 August 2016), Moses Roper, Lachûte, Deux Montagnes County, Canada East (Quebec), Canada; citing p. 17, line 13; Library and Archives Canada film number C_1147, Public Archives, Ontario.

• Boston Globe. (1891, April 12). Turned from a Hospital: Moses Roper of Maine Found Suffering and Helpless. Boston Globe, p. 2. Retrieved December 28, 2022, from https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115325594/turned-from-a-hotel-moses-roper-of-main/

• Boston Globe. (1891, April 16). Mother Was a Slave: Death of Moses Roper at the City Hospital. Bsston Globe, p. 1. Retrieved December 28, 2022, from https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115325241/mother-was-a-slave-death-of-moses-roper/

• Paul Walker, ‘Moses Roper (1815-?): An African-American Baptist in Victorian England’, Baptist Quarterly 42, no.4 (2007): 296–302 and ‘Moses Roper (1815-1891).

• "Some End of Life Notes Regarding Escaped Slave Moses ROPER (b abt 1815, d 15 Apr 1891 - Boston, Suffolk, MA)," by William A. Roper, Jr. [11 May 2015 4:10 AM]. Posted Discussion Thread at the Ancestry ROPER Message Board. https://www.ancestry.com/boards/surnames.roper/2049

• Sweeney, F., & Baker, B. E. (2022, February 07). ‘I am not a beggar’: Moses Roper, Black Witness and the Lost Opportunity of British Abolitionism. (G. Heuman, Ed.) Slavery & Abolition, 43(3), pp. 632-667. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2022.2027656

• Brown, M. (2022, February 16). Moses Roper: the fugitive from slavery cast aside by British abolitionists. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/16/moses-roper-fugitive-from-slavery-cast-aside-british-abolitionists

• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G41G-V69

• Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
  Find A Grave: Memorial #213036412 (accessed 21 December 2022)
  Memorial page for Moses Roper (1815-15 Apr 1891), citing Mount Hope Cemetery, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA (plot: Grave 23 row 34 Section C); Maintained by President Christos Christou Jr (contributor 46491266).

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Roper