Welcome to the official JOHN PARKER AUTOBIOGRAPHY site, maintained by the Special Collections Library at Duke University. Here is a list of what you can find at this site:
John Parker's autobiography was transcribed by the journalist Frank Moody Gregg in the 1880s. Gregg, like many others, was interested in finding the original "Eliza" from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. As part of his search, Gregg interviewed John Rankin, a noted abolitionist from Ripley, Ohio, and a principal conductor on the Underground Railroad. Rankin evidently led Gregg to Parker, who became fascinated enough with Parker's life story to take it down.
The actual manuscript is barely legible, though most words can be picked out with some effort. It is almost certainly a polished draft from notes. Most of the memoir is written on white "Mount Tom Bond Paper," but a small episode apparently separate from the autobiography (and as yet unpublished) is written on notebook paper (see example). In addition, the introduction is written on the back of several pages of a typewritten play manuscript Gregg seems to have been editing (see example).
In 1996 His Promised Land, edited by Stuart Seely Sprague, was published. It is a transcription (with notes and commentary) of most of the Parker autobiography. In 1997, the movie and television rights to Parker's story were sold to Scripps Howard Productions.
The original Parker autobiography is housed in the Special Collections Library at Duke University as part of the Rankin-Parker collection. Besides Parker's memoirs, the collection also includes Rankin's autobiography, written in pencil by Rankin's shaky hand, and a piece titled "Eliza," which represents Gregg's version of the Uncle Tom's Cabin heroine's plight. The collection has been in Duke's possession since 1939.
Nearly everything we know about John Parker comes from the autobiography. According to the memoir, Parker was born in 1827 in Norfolk, Virginia. His father was apparently a wealthy white man; his mother a slave like Parker. He spent the first 18 years of his life as a slave, earning himself a reputation as a troublemaker. In 1845 he purchased his freedom. He was married to Miranda Boulden of Cincinnati in 1848 (she is rarely mentioned, never by name, in the autobiography), and moved to Ripley, Ohio the next year. He and Miranda had six children together (two of whom, inheriting their father's intelligence, went on to study at Oberlin College).
It was in Ripley, a hotbed of abolitionist activity, that his work on the Underground Railroad began and flourished. By his own count, he helped over 400 slaves to freedom. By day, however, Parker was a successful businessman; in 1865 he purchased an iron foundry, and he patented several popular inventions.
"A more fearless creature never lived," said the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune shortly after his death. "He gloried in danger. He would go boldly over into the enemy's camp and filch the fugitives to freedom.'' (quoted in "Underground Railroad Museum is real chance for greatness" by Laura Pulfer,
A more complete biography can be found in the introduction to His Promised Land. For a superb biography of Parker's life which focuses on his business and inventions, check out his page on the FACES of SCIENCE: African Americans in the Sciences site put together by the Chemistry library at Louisiana State University.
You can find more information about the Duke University Special Collections Library and other holdings from the Special Collections Library home page. For more information about other Underground Railroad materials at Duke, you can search the Duke Libraries on-line catalog or contact the Special Collections Library reference desk directly at specoll@mail.lib.duke.edu. You can find more information about the Underground Railroad by looking in your local library or by checking out these websites:
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The digitized version of the John Parker Autobiography was developed as a project of The Digital Scriptorium of the Duke University Special Collections Library
If your study of this document leads you to a new conclusion, please send us a note and we will be happy to add your contributions.
The diary was scanned with a Sharp JX-330 color flatbed scanner with Adobe Photoshop on a PowerMacintosh 9500/120. The "double size" images are 24-bit 150dpi JPEGs and the "full size" ones are 72dpi GIFs.
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