Twenty-Two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman

Austin Steward (1793-1860) was an African-American abolitionist and author. He was born a slave of William Helm in Prince William County, Virginia. In 1815, Steward escaped to Canada where he joined the Wilberforce Colony, an establishment of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). His autobiography, Twenty-Two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman was published in 1856.