38 Facts About Moses Grandy

The monies Moses earned were collected and held until James Grandy turned 21.

Moses Grandy helped build the Great Dismal Swamp Canal and learned how to navigate boats.

Able to keep a portion of his earnings, Moses Grandy arranged to buy his freedom twice, and twice, his enslavers kept the money and held him in slavery.

An arrangement was made for an honorable man to buy him, and Moses Grandy earned the money to buy his freedom a third time, this time successfully.

Moses Grandy was able to secure the release of his wife and 15-year-old son.

Moses Grandy dictated a narrative of his life, Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy, Late a Slave in the United States of America, to buy the freedom of additional family members.

Moses Grandy was owned by Billy Grandy and raised with his children.

When he was about eight years old, Moses was inherited by James Grandy, his playmate of the same age, who was his deceased enslaver's son.

Moses Grandy's family was separated when his siblings and father were sold.

Moses Grandy was subject to beatings, and not having enough to eat, he was half-starved.

Moses Grandy was hired out by James Moses Grandy when he was 10.

Moses Grandy lived on Sawyer's plantation, placed his bare feet in heated mud from a hog's nighttime slumber for warmth, and visited his mother, who lived in a cabin in a remote area on non-arable land outside of Camden after she became "too infirm to work".

The money made through Moses Grandy's work was received and held for James Grandy until he turned 21.

Moses Grandy worked jobs transporting goods to Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia, and running boats and cutting timber for the Great Dismal Swamp Canal.

Several bosses after Sawyer, Moses Grandy worked for a man named Richard Furley, who allowed Moses Grandy to take on extra work, working nights and Sundays, taking a share of the receipts.

James Moses Grandy called in all the enslaved people he had rented out to others and allowed Moses Grandy to continue doing extra work, but took twice as much as Furley's percentage of the receipts.

Moses Grandy was young yet and had seen a rough go of things already, but he was old enough to know that his life should not be all brutish work and near starvation and standing on the ceremony and bad habits of white men.

Moses Grandy was thoughtful about his actions to avoid worsening his situation; he would not be a runaway or a rebel.

Moses Grandy was keenly aware that his success would be more likely to be secured by an alliance with an honorable man.

Moses Grandy became commander, ultimately Captain Moses Grandy, of up to four boats that navigated and transported goods on the Great Dismal Swamp Canal and the difficult, curvy Pasquotank River, the only navigable waterways between Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and Norfolk, Virginia, once the British closed off Chesapeake Bay in the War of 1812.

Moses Grandy's pay was now based on the value of the successfully transported merchandise.

Moses Grandy "married" a woman, who he said he loved "as I loved my life".

Moses Grandy lived on a plantation, and one day, as he was poling a boat through the river, he heard a woman call his name.

Moses Grandy saw his wife in a slave coffle as she was being walked to a boat that would take her south and away from him.

Moses Grandy earned enough money to buy his freedom, but two different enslavers stole his money.

Moses Grandy tore up the receipts and went to the tavern to drink rather than walk toward the courthouse.

Moses Grandy, owned now by Trewitt and having lost his savings, was hired out again.

Trewitt kept a share of the money Moses earned, and Moses Grandy saved another $600.

Moses Grandy's enslaver threatened to sell him, meaning he would be separated from his second wife.

Ironically, one of the most brutal slave overseers, a Mr Brooks, was outraged by the second time in which Moses Grandy's money was taken without securing his freedom.

Moses Grandy notified Grandy that a man, Edward Minner, might be able to help secure his freedom.

Moses Grandy recounted the experiences he had to a white man he believed to be honorable, Edward Minner, who agreed to buy him for $650 and have him earn back the price of the sale to obtain his freedom.

Moses Grandy returned to North Carolina and obtained work to earn his family's freedom.

Minner died one year later, and Moses Grandy returned to the safer North to earn money for their freedom.

In 1840, Moses Grandy was listed in the Boston Directory, and his profession was a laborer.

Moses Grandy lived with his wife and four young men.

Moses Grandy worked in coal yards, sawed wood, and took cargo on and off vessels.

Moses Grandy believed abolitionists in the United States, England, and Ireland were important in the fight to abolish slavery.