Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman: Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, While President of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada West

In Short

Published in 1857, Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman is Austin Steward’s candid autobiography detailing his life under Southern slavery, his escape to New York, and his subsequent efforts to build self-sustaining Black institutions. It chronicles his business success in Rochester, his leadership as president of the Canadian Wilberforce Colony, and the grueling internal conflicts that plagued the settlement. The work has endured as a rare, uncompromising portrait of northern free Black leadership, institutional ambition, and the immense difficulty of building autonomy within a hostile white society.

The Story

The narrative begins in Virginia, where Steward experiences the routine deprivations and cruelties of plantation life under two masters, Captain Helm and the tyrant Mr. Robinson. Steward recounts how kindness from white neighbors or slaveholders was met with intense suspicion from nearby planters, while the slaves themselves developed covert strategies to survive, share resources, and maintain humanity. After experiencing the horrors of slave markets and enforced labor, Steward moves north with his master to New York State, where he eventually secures his freedom.

Upon gaining liberty, Steward settles in Rochester, establishing himself as a respected, devout, and prosperous merchant. His high moral character earns him the respect of prominent white and Black community members alike. When New York abolishes slavery on July 4, 1827, Steward delivers the main address, rallying emancipated citizens toward moral refinement, self-reliance, and public dignity.

However, Steward’s life shifts dramatically when he is called to serve a higher communal purpose. In the early 1830s, free Black Americans organize to escape harsh laws in the United States by establishing the Wilberforce Colony in Canada West. Steward moves his family to the wilderness, where he is elected President of the settlement's Board of Managers. The community aims to purchase land, build schools, and create a sanctuary for refugees from American slavery.

The dream of Wilberforce soon fractures from within and without. The colony appoints agents to travel across the United States and Great Britain to raise money for land purchases and infrastructure. Instead of supporting the settlers, key agents, most notably Israel Lewis, misappropriate thousands of dollars, incur massive debts, and falsely use Steward’s personal credit and reputation. Steward finds himself trapped between external creditors demanding repayment and internal corruption that threatens to destroy the settlement. Despite surviving an ambush in a dark swamp orchestrated by Lewis, Steward cannot single-handedly rescue the colony from financial ruin and political infighting.

Disillusioned by the betrayal and administrative failure, Steward leaves Wilberforce and returns to New York, taking up teaching in Canandaigua. The closing chapters transition into a broader sociopolitical argument, reflecting on the hypocrisy of American democracy, the strength of Black institutions like the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the absolute duty of the oppressed to demand full citizenship and human rights.

How It Unfolds

Youth in Virginia bondage Steward documents his early life under Southern slaveholders, describing how neighboring patrolmen aggressively targeted enslaved people even during authorized gatherings to prevent any semblance of independence or solidarity.

Escape and northern enterprise After relocating to New York State with his master, Steward secures his freedom, moves to Rochester, and establishes a thriving retail business, earning widespread respect across the town.

Celebration of New York emancipation In 1827, state abolition takes effect, and Steward delivers a major public address exhorting the newly freed population to claim full respect and self-determination through industry and virtue.

Founding the Wilberforce Colony Seeking true autonomy away from American prejudice, Steward migrates to Canada West to preside over a newly settled Black colony, appointing fundraising agents to secure land and build schools.

Embezzlement and betrayal Colony agent Israel Lewis defrauds the settlement, pocketing thousands in donations, leaving Steward personally liable for debts and throwing the entire administration into chaos.

Survival and retreat After escaping an armed assassination attempt in a dreary swamp by Lewis and his accomplices, Steward realizes the colony's governance is hopelessly compromised and resigns to return to teaching in New York.

Reflections on Black nationhood Steward concludes with sharp political critiques, questioning why Black Americans should defend a nation that denies them liberty, while expressing unwavering faith in the destiny and resilience of his people.

The People

• Austin Steward: The author and narrator, who seeks self-reliance, moral dignity, and institutional freedom for Black Americans. Stood in his way are the institution of slavery, racial prejudice, and the betrayal of colleagues he trusted. He transforms from an illiterate enslaved laborer into a prosperous businessman, community leader, and author.

• Captain Helm: Steward’s original Virginia master, an aristocratic planter addicted to horse-racing and gambling. Lacking financial discipline or respect for human rights, he continually hires out his enslaved workforce and eventually attempts to kidnap and resell his former slaves into southern markets to pay off debts.

• Israel Lewis: A charismatic Black leader and designated agent for the Wilberforce Colony. Driven by personal greed and deceit, he spends donated funds meant for land and schools, uses Steward's personal name to secure loans, and attempts to murder Steward when exposed.

• Rev. Nathaniel Paul: A prominent minister sent to Great Britain to raise funds for Wilberforce, whose prolonged absence and mixed financial accountability contribute to the colony’s administrative undoing.

In Its Own Voice

"Slavery had cast its dark and fearful shadow over my childhood, youth, and early manhood, and I went out from the land of my birth, a fettered slave."

Steward reflects on how the trauma of Southern bondage embittered even his early childhood memories of Virginia.

"I thought, of course, if the judgment day had come, I should be no longer a slave in the power of a heartless tyrant."

During a total solar eclipse, an enslaved Steward finds solace rather than fear in the thought of cosmic judgment, knowing it would free him from his master's abuse.

"What inducement then, has the slave to shoulder his musket, when the American drum beats the call, 'To Arms! To Arms!'"

Steward challenges the expectation that Black men should fight for a government that actively denies them basic liberty and protection.

What It's Really About

Steward’s work reaches far beyond the conventional narrative of escaping slavery. It is fundamentally an examination of the immense difficulty of building Black political and financial autonomy in the nineteenth century. Steward exposes how systemic racism in the North and South continually undermines Black enterprise, while also offering a rare, painfully honest look at internal community failure. By detailing the mismanagement and betrayal within the Wilberforce Colony, he argues that moral integrity, strict governance, and true economic independence are the only foundations upon which marginalized communities can successfully resist oppression.

Why Read It Today

Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman is a vital, eye-opening read for anyone interested in African American history, abolitionism, and the messy realities of utopian pioneer settlements. What sets Steward’s memoir apart from other slave narratives is its detailed second half, which reads like a political thriller dealing with land deals, bank notes, fraudulent agents, and middle-of-the-night ambushes.

Reading Steward feels less like listening to a polished campaign speech and more like sitting down with a clear-eyed, weathered elder who refuses to sugarcoat anything. He does not hide the community's internal flaws or his own misjudgments, making his ultimate commitment to justice all the more powerful. The text carries the prose conventions of its era, including formal correspondence, public resolutions, and religious commentary. Yet, beneath the mid-nineteenth-century structure lies a deeply personal, remarkably candid account of a man who fought his entire life—first to own himself, and then to build a home where his people could truly be free.