Biography of a Slave, Being the Experiences of Rev. Charles Thompson, a Preacher of the United Brethren Church, While a Slave in the South. / Together with Startling Occurrences Incidental to Slave Life.

The memoir recounts a man's life born into slavery in Mississippi, beginning with a traumatic division of an owner's estate that separated him from his mother. It traces repeated sales and hirings, labor on railroads and plantations, unsuccessful escape attempts and recapture, his development into a preacher who organizes meetings and worship among enslaved people, marriage, conflicts with overseers, and moments of physical danger and spiritual consolation. The narrative emphasizes routine brutality, strategies of survival, community religious life, and the sustaining role of faith through decades of servitude.