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The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict
The earliest known prison memoir by an African American writer—recently discovered and authenticated by a team of Yale scholars—sheds light on the longstanding connection between race and incarceration in America.
In 2009, scholars at Yale University came across a startling manuscript: the memoir of Austin Reed, a free black man born in the 1820s who spent most of his early life ricocheting between forced labor in prison and forced labor as an indentured servant. Lost for more than one hundred and fifty years, the handwritten document is the first known prison memoir written by an African American. Corroborated by prison records and other documentary sources, Reed’s text gives a gripping first-person account of an antebellum Northern life lived outside slavery that nonetheless bore, in its day-to-day details, unsettling resemblances to that very institution.
Now, for the first time, we can hear Austin Reed’s story as he meant to tell it. He was born to a middle-class black family in the boomtown of Rochester, New York, but when his father died, his mother struggled to make ends meet. Still a child, Reed was placed as an indentured servant to a nearby family of white farmers near Rochester. He was caught attempting to set fire to a building and sentenced to ten years at Manhattan’s brutal House of Refuge, an early juvenile reformatory that would soon become known for beatings and forced labor.
Seven years later, Reed found himself at New York’s infamous Auburn State Prison. It was there that he finished writing this memoir, which explores America’s first reformatory and first industrial prison from an inmate’s point of view, recalling the great cruelties and kindnesses he experienced in those places and excavating patterns of racial segregation, exploitation, and bondage that extended beyond the boundaries of the slaveholding South, into free New York.
Accompanied by fascinating historical documents (including a series of poignant letters written by Reed near the end of his life), The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict is a work of uncommon beauty that tells a story of nineteenth-century racism, violence, labor, and captivity in a proud, defiant voice. Reed’s memoir illuminates his own life and times—as well as ours today.
In 2009, scholars at Yale University came across a startling manuscript: the memoir of Austin Reed, a free black man born in the 1820s who spent most of his early life ricocheting between forced labor in prison and forced labor as an indentured servant. Lost for more than one hundred and fifty years, the handwritten document is the first known prison memoir written by an African American. Corroborated by prison records and other documentary sources, Reed’s text gives a gripping first-person account of an antebellum Northern life lived outside slavery that nonetheless bore, in its day-to-day details, unsettling resemblances to that very institution.
Now, for the first time, we can hear Austin Reed’s story as he meant to tell it. He was born to a middle-class black family in the boomtown of Rochester, New York, but when his father died, his mother struggled to make ends meet. Still a child, Reed was placed as an indentured servant to a nearby family of white farmers near Rochester. He was caught attempting to set fire to a building and sentenced to ten years at Manhattan’s brutal House of Refuge, an early juvenile reformatory that would soon become known for beatings and forced labor.
Seven years later, Reed found himself at New York’s infamous Auburn State Prison. It was there that he finished writing this memoir, which explores America’s first reformatory and first industrial prison from an inmate’s point of view, recalling the great cruelties and kindnesses he experienced in those places and excavating patterns of racial segregation, exploitation, and bondage that extended beyond the boundaries of the slaveholding South, into free New York.
Accompanied by fascinating historical documents (including a series of poignant letters written by Reed near the end of his life), The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict is a work of uncommon beauty that tells a story of nineteenth-century racism, violence, labor, and captivity in a proud, defiant voice. Reed’s memoir illuminates his own life and times—as well as ours today.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 26, 2016
32 people are currently reading
1548 people want to read
About the author
Austin Reed
1 book16 followersAustin Reed (1827?-?) is the reputed author (as Rob Reed) of The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict, reportedly the first prison memoir by an African American. Born in Rochester, New York State, Reed spent time in the New York House of Refuge, a juvenile detention facility, and later served several terms (interrupted by multiple escapes) in the Auburn State Prison. His memoir, written around 1858-59, apparently when he was still incarcerated, has been acquired by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University and authenticated by the Yale scholar Caleb Smith.
Reed reportedly lived until at least 1895, according to a manuscript letter preserved in New York State records.
(from Wikipedia)
Reed reportedly lived until at least 1895, according to a manuscript letter preserved in New York State records.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
January 31, 2016
There can be no doubt that this remarkable document uncovered and authenticated recently by a team led by Caleb Smith at Yale University is something altogether new in the annals of prison literature. A young free black inmate of New York’s prison system, ten years old at first incarceration in 1833, shares his history in rich detail and with great storytelling skill.
If at first I thought this might be a story of the wrongly accused—the boy was only ten years old!—I was soon disabused of that idea, given Austin Reed’s own testimony that his mother was despairing of his precocious criminality and bad habits, sending him out to be indentured to a farmer some distance into the country from the corrupting influence of city life Rochester, N.Y. Within days Reed had made that farmer angry enough to give him the whip, at which point Reed threw himself on the mercy and tender attentions of another nearby farmhouse, who promptly made an effort to bring the boy back to his home in Rochester again, to the near-suicidal despair of Reed’s mother.
It turns out that Reed’s sister was as indignant as Reed himself was about the whipping, and stirred the boy to take a pistol and a knife to that angry farmer who initially indentured him. Thus attempted murder must be considered when considering his case, and though the murder failed, Reed did manage to light the farmer’s barn and house on fire, burning it nearly to the ground, if his own record is to be believed. That is how he was put into the prison system the first time. (Here I will admit to an exceedingly strong hankering to know what became of the sister. If this were fiction, we could make something up. I want the nonfiction story of that strong-willed creature so filled with rage.)
What makes this work so thrilling to read is that the reader finds oneself taken with this “bright boy” despite his worst efforts to complicate his life, forcing one to imagine the position and condition of a free black in a northern city before the Civil War, and examine what could cause such indignation on the part of the sister and the boy when authority of any kind attempted to constrain their unruly behaviors. When Reed tells us that being in the House of Refuge in New York City as a young boy taught him many scams and illicit behaviors of which he had been previously unaware, and to which he took like a duck to water, we shudder to think of what will become of him. So it is foretold that he was incarcerated most of his adult life for felonies and larcenies of all sorts.
An astonishing and full-throated defense of immigrant Irish we may never again hear and yet shows the depth of Reed’s feeling for those boys who, crushed like him by the “hand of oppression,” shared his cells:
This beautifully written, edited, and annotated memoir of Austin Reed’s time in jail is revelatory for what it says of the cruelties and inconsistencies in the justice system, but it also gives an unforgettable glimpse into the mind of a black man in the system at the time. Prison “cut off from all virtue” a man who could only “sit brooding on vice and preparing for crime.” Fantastically detailed in places, the memoir recreates the adventures of a picaresque hero more usually found in the pages of a novel. Reed had many protectors and mentors during his time in prison, and due to his native intelligence, pride, and charm (and despite his crimes), managed to live out his years to old age. A letter he wrote to the prison system in 1895 is discussed in the Introduction.
While I have called this work a memoir, it is not a memoir in the usual sense. It is a personal history in the manner of literature at the time, and uses fictional devices and structure in places to make the story flow and involve readers. The prison warden also notes that Reed is “a most notorious liar…a deep knowing impudent and brazen-faced boy…” Reed wanted the work published: he actively tried to make that happen at different stages in his life. He had a sense of himself that reminds one of Iceberg Slim, another proud brother who had a strong sense of his own talents who used prison to learn many shortcuts to the life he wanted to live. Iceberg Slim also came to advise against a life of crime, but he could see the attractions of it, and the reasons for it, in the black community.
I cannot recommend this book more highly.
If at first I thought this might be a story of the wrongly accused—the boy was only ten years old!—I was soon disabused of that idea, given Austin Reed’s own testimony that his mother was despairing of his precocious criminality and bad habits, sending him out to be indentured to a farmer some distance into the country from the corrupting influence of city life Rochester, N.Y. Within days Reed had made that farmer angry enough to give him the whip, at which point Reed threw himself on the mercy and tender attentions of another nearby farmhouse, who promptly made an effort to bring the boy back to his home in Rochester again, to the near-suicidal despair of Reed’s mother.
It turns out that Reed’s sister was as indignant as Reed himself was about the whipping, and stirred the boy to take a pistol and a knife to that angry farmer who initially indentured him. Thus attempted murder must be considered when considering his case, and though the murder failed, Reed did manage to light the farmer’s barn and house on fire, burning it nearly to the ground, if his own record is to be believed. That is how he was put into the prison system the first time. (Here I will admit to an exceedingly strong hankering to know what became of the sister. If this were fiction, we could make something up. I want the nonfiction story of that strong-willed creature so filled with rage.)
What makes this work so thrilling to read is that the reader finds oneself taken with this “bright boy” despite his worst efforts to complicate his life, forcing one to imagine the position and condition of a free black in a northern city before the Civil War, and examine what could cause such indignation on the part of the sister and the boy when authority of any kind attempted to constrain their unruly behaviors. When Reed tells us that being in the House of Refuge in New York City as a young boy taught him many scams and illicit behaviors of which he had been previously unaware, and to which he took like a duck to water, we shudder to think of what will become of him. So it is foretold that he was incarcerated most of his adult life for felonies and larcenies of all sorts.
An astonishing and full-throated defense of immigrant Irish we may never again hear and yet shows the depth of Reed’s feeling for those boys who, crushed like him by the “hand of oppression,” shared his cells:
“Poor Pat…shivering in poverty and clothed in rags of disgrace and shame, while freedom is planted deep in his breast…poor and helpless on these shores, with no one to extend them a hand…Yes, me brave Irish boys, me loves you till the day that I am laid cold under the sod, and I would let the last drop of this dark blood run and drain from these black veins of mine to rescue you from the hands of a full blooded Yankee…Reader, if you are on the right side of an Irishman, you have the best friend in the world.”
This beautifully written, edited, and annotated memoir of Austin Reed’s time in jail is revelatory for what it says of the cruelties and inconsistencies in the justice system, but it also gives an unforgettable glimpse into the mind of a black man in the system at the time. Prison “cut off from all virtue” a man who could only “sit brooding on vice and preparing for crime.” Fantastically detailed in places, the memoir recreates the adventures of a picaresque hero more usually found in the pages of a novel. Reed had many protectors and mentors during his time in prison, and due to his native intelligence, pride, and charm (and despite his crimes), managed to live out his years to old age. A letter he wrote to the prison system in 1895 is discussed in the Introduction.
While I have called this work a memoir, it is not a memoir in the usual sense. It is a personal history in the manner of literature at the time, and uses fictional devices and structure in places to make the story flow and involve readers. The prison warden also notes that Reed is “a most notorious liar…a deep knowing impudent and brazen-faced boy…” Reed wanted the work published: he actively tried to make that happen at different stages in his life. He had a sense of himself that reminds one of Iceberg Slim, another proud brother who had a strong sense of his own talents who used prison to learn many shortcuts to the life he wanted to live. Iceberg Slim also came to advise against a life of crime, but he could see the attractions of it, and the reasons for it, in the black community.
I cannot recommend this book more highly.
February 23, 2017
*I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.*
Austin Reed's The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict is a well written prison memoir. It was written around 1858 however it was discovered about 8 years ago in an estate sale. Researchers verified Reed's story and found that he was a prisoner in the 1800's in New York, making this the earliest known African-American prison memoir.
Reed tells his life and adventures as if it were a novel. Many have compared it to Charles Dickens writing. I found the biblical imagery used throughout very interesting. The characters of people that he met along the way are also fascinating. The sad part about reading his memoir is that I kept thinking about the similarities to today's problem of mass incarceration. This quote by Reed struck me:
"it makes my heart ache every time I see so many young men a rushing within the walls of a gloomy prison. where in the course of time he will become the harden inmate of a gloomy prison"
And this quote by Horace Cook to Reed:
"Within these walls are some of the smartest and intellectual young men that are in this country, young men endowed with a good education and a good reason, and who might have done a good deal of good and might been bright and shining ornaments in the world and angels in heaven-but instead of that they are spending the best of their days in a dark and a gloomy prison".
I highly recommend that you read this book especially the research in the introduction and the endnotes. The records included in the Appendix were also fascinating especially the two letters that the researchers found from Reed to the House of Refugee.
Austin Reed's The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict is a well written prison memoir. It was written around 1858 however it was discovered about 8 years ago in an estate sale. Researchers verified Reed's story and found that he was a prisoner in the 1800's in New York, making this the earliest known African-American prison memoir.
Reed tells his life and adventures as if it were a novel. Many have compared it to Charles Dickens writing. I found the biblical imagery used throughout very interesting. The characters of people that he met along the way are also fascinating. The sad part about reading his memoir is that I kept thinking about the similarities to today's problem of mass incarceration. This quote by Reed struck me:
"it makes my heart ache every time I see so many young men a rushing within the walls of a gloomy prison. where in the course of time he will become the harden inmate of a gloomy prison"
And this quote by Horace Cook to Reed:
"Within these walls are some of the smartest and intellectual young men that are in this country, young men endowed with a good education and a good reason, and who might have done a good deal of good and might been bright and shining ornaments in the world and angels in heaven-but instead of that they are spending the best of their days in a dark and a gloomy prison".
I highly recommend that you read this book especially the research in the introduction and the endnotes. The records included in the Appendix were also fascinating especially the two letters that the researchers found from Reed to the House of Refugee.
February 18, 2016
I heard about this book in an article in Smithsonian magazine last month. I immediately put a hold on it at the library because I have a weird fascination with prison memoirs. It's true. The only thing I can think is frequent viewings of Shawshank Redemption and Bandits has caused this preoccupation in prison memoirs and stories.
Austin Reed was a free black man born in the 1820s. When he was still fairly young, after his father died, he was sent away to another family to be an indentured servant. When he is treated improperly there, he runs away and returns home, and his sister plants the seed of revenge in Austin's mind. He returns to the other home and plays pyromaniac with the house. He is, of course, caught and sent to the House of Refuge, the first youth detention center in the United States.
This book is a collection of Reed's writings from his time spent in the House of Refuge and, later, Auburn State Prison. His experiences in both shed light on the seriously fucked up practices that took place in the penal system in the mid 19th century. Of course we still hear stories about conditions in prisons and correctional facilities, and it makes one wonder if the system will ever not be corrupt. It's heartbreaking to recognize just how long this shit has been going on.
It also is an early example of how a young black man was never given an opportunity. This child was not born into slavery and yet was put into a situation that was not unlike it, and once he (for lack of a better term) fought back, he fell into a system that had no intention of correcting his behavior or helping him improve his life. Reed fell into a life of violence and iniquity, but one wonders how things may have been different for him.
The majority of the memoir is simply Reed's story. He was an articulate prisoner and had an important message to share. It's evident he fully intended to have his story shared with others as he referred frequently to "Reader", as opposed to just writing for his own benefit. This of course makes me wonder the veracity of some of his statements, or his details of his own behaviors or words throughout his life, but the details of the brutalities he endured in the prison system are, sadly, historically accurate.
Additional pieces of writing include full explanation of those inhumane treatments of prisoners, and I'm a bit surprised that it wasn't included in the main "memoir". Reading them at the end of the memoir gave the overall book a sort of disjointed feeling, but that's a minor complaint.
At a time when many of us have had our eyes opened to the atrocity that is the penal system, and when books like The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (which I haven't even had a chance to read yet) are helping those with their eyes still closed to reconsider their positions, this new publication of the earliest memoir by a black inmate is important and heartbreaking.
Austin Reed was a free black man born in the 1820s. When he was still fairly young, after his father died, he was sent away to another family to be an indentured servant. When he is treated improperly there, he runs away and returns home, and his sister plants the seed of revenge in Austin's mind. He returns to the other home and plays pyromaniac with the house. He is, of course, caught and sent to the House of Refuge, the first youth detention center in the United States.
This book is a collection of Reed's writings from his time spent in the House of Refuge and, later, Auburn State Prison. His experiences in both shed light on the seriously fucked up practices that took place in the penal system in the mid 19th century. Of course we still hear stories about conditions in prisons and correctional facilities, and it makes one wonder if the system will ever not be corrupt. It's heartbreaking to recognize just how long this shit has been going on.
It also is an early example of how a young black man was never given an opportunity. This child was not born into slavery and yet was put into a situation that was not unlike it, and once he (for lack of a better term) fought back, he fell into a system that had no intention of correcting his behavior or helping him improve his life. Reed fell into a life of violence and iniquity, but one wonders how things may have been different for him.
The majority of the memoir is simply Reed's story. He was an articulate prisoner and had an important message to share. It's evident he fully intended to have his story shared with others as he referred frequently to "Reader", as opposed to just writing for his own benefit. This of course makes me wonder the veracity of some of his statements, or his details of his own behaviors or words throughout his life, but the details of the brutalities he endured in the prison system are, sadly, historically accurate.
Additional pieces of writing include full explanation of those inhumane treatments of prisoners, and I'm a bit surprised that it wasn't included in the main "memoir". Reading them at the end of the memoir gave the overall book a sort of disjointed feeling, but that's a minor complaint.
At a time when many of us have had our eyes opened to the atrocity that is the penal system, and when books like The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (which I haven't even had a chance to read yet) are helping those with their eyes still closed to reconsider their positions, this new publication of the earliest memoir by a black inmate is important and heartbreaking.
March 31, 2016
I was interested in the historical value of this book. Excited to be able to read the words of an African American who lived in the 1830s. Fascinated by his outlook on life. This is the recently discovered memoir of Austin Reed and his life and incarceration in the 19th century. I was surprised to find that the reform school Reed was sent to as a child was integrated. The House of Refuge was for poor kids. Half were Irish, but the races were treated differently and in later years actually segregated.
I don't normally read introductions and this one is really long, but I saw that I would miss out on a lot of background information by skipping it. Once into the introduction I became curious about the court records from Reed's trial. They weren't available. Nevertheless this book is exhaustively researched. The intro took forever to get through what with flipping back and forth to the notes, but I wanted to know everything.
I studied this work like a text book. I checked out the scans of the original manuscript on the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library website. Editor Caleb Smith worried that he may not have done enough or perhaps had done too little by way of making Reed's manuscript readable. He needn't worry, I think he did an admirable job. Allowing Reed's personality, speech patterns, ideas and the beauty of his phrasing shine through.
Finally into Reed's story I'm struck by his sense of entitlement. How he was given good instructions to live by that he promptly ignored. When caught, he threatened his own mother's life and encourages his sister to do the same. Reed and his family are free blacks in the 1830s who interact freely with whites. So different from stories of the South. Still I would think blacks wouldn't be able to move around as freely as Reed describes. To be pissed after he is beaten by his white indentured master and the story of Reed's mother and sister sounds insane and fictional to me. I just don't think black people living in the 1830s would think and behave with such entitlement.
Reed's story left me with a lot of questions. Why would the Sheriff, Mr. Austin, leave Reed's cell unlocked at night, knowing he'd escaped Ladd's unlocked room and had tried to burn down his house? Reed did not have to become a convict, he had choices, limited though they may have been, he and his sister and his mother made choices that sounded just crazy to me. But I have to remember who he is and what his particular skill set is. I had to remember what Smith the editor said, that Reed's book is part memoir part fiction. There was just so much that I just could not believe. Sadly Reed sounds like he's been brainwashed into thinking you can be kindly and sympathetically beaten with the cat-o-nine-tails. Whipping and smiling, whipping and saying encouraging words. Brainwashed into thinking "milk white" skin is beautiful and a "nigger is thick lipped and black as midnight." The use of "infernal nigger" with the same feeling as "infernal villain". Reed or Reed's character in the book makes so many bad decisions I just want to shake his shoulders. Seems like he's just determined to stay locked up. Reed is a contradiction, in one breath he is planning the vengeful murder of the headmaster, then in the next he is bemoaning the sinfulness of alcohol.
There are a couple "polemics" against novels and yet he's writing a novel! He railed against being a bartender for Esq. Johnson because the serving of alcohol was immoral and indecent. Esq. Johnson was going to take him in, make him part of his family and send him to college, but Reed refused because he didn't want to serve demon alcohol to people. Later he's magically Home and the first job he gets is as a bartender with nary a complaint. Hanging out at the house of ill repute, making more poor decision and ending up back in court. It was crazy making for me.
During Reed's many many years of deserved incarceration new modes of punishment were seemingly invented just for him. Every punishment available was used on him. Including the precursor to waterboarding, the shower bath. He has anger issues and stayed out of jail for only months at a time between convictions and sentences. I counted at least seven different convictions and jail terms, fully served. Stints of 3 years to 10 years. He always blamed the prison system for turning him into a hardened criminal. But he had choices and he choose to do things that landed him in the hot seat time and time again. After the shower bath and a talk with Col. Lewis it seemed at long last he was considering changing his ways and following prison rules. Yes, the prison conditions were inhumane, they were terrible and to use Reed's favorite word, gloomy. The prisoners were treated like slaves and animals, they were beat for the slightest infraction. However he could never see the part he played in things.
His letters that were included in the book gave me hope that he eventually cleaned up his act. I was just exasperated with him, but glad to be able to read his story all these years later.
P.S. I've been entering the Good Reads book give aways for years and I finally won with this book. Thanks Random House.
I don't normally read introductions and this one is really long, but I saw that I would miss out on a lot of background information by skipping it. Once into the introduction I became curious about the court records from Reed's trial. They weren't available. Nevertheless this book is exhaustively researched. The intro took forever to get through what with flipping back and forth to the notes, but I wanted to know everything.
I studied this work like a text book. I checked out the scans of the original manuscript on the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library website. Editor Caleb Smith worried that he may not have done enough or perhaps had done too little by way of making Reed's manuscript readable. He needn't worry, I think he did an admirable job. Allowing Reed's personality, speech patterns, ideas and the beauty of his phrasing shine through.
Finally into Reed's story I'm struck by his sense of entitlement. How he was given good instructions to live by that he promptly ignored. When caught, he threatened his own mother's life and encourages his sister to do the same. Reed and his family are free blacks in the 1830s who interact freely with whites. So different from stories of the South. Still I would think blacks wouldn't be able to move around as freely as Reed describes. To be pissed after he is beaten by his white indentured master and the story of Reed's mother and sister sounds insane and fictional to me. I just don't think black people living in the 1830s would think and behave with such entitlement.
Reed's story left me with a lot of questions. Why would the Sheriff, Mr. Austin, leave Reed's cell unlocked at night, knowing he'd escaped Ladd's unlocked room and had tried to burn down his house? Reed did not have to become a convict, he had choices, limited though they may have been, he and his sister and his mother made choices that sounded just crazy to me. But I have to remember who he is and what his particular skill set is. I had to remember what Smith the editor said, that Reed's book is part memoir part fiction. There was just so much that I just could not believe. Sadly Reed sounds like he's been brainwashed into thinking you can be kindly and sympathetically beaten with the cat-o-nine-tails. Whipping and smiling, whipping and saying encouraging words. Brainwashed into thinking "milk white" skin is beautiful and a "nigger is thick lipped and black as midnight." The use of "infernal nigger" with the same feeling as "infernal villain". Reed or Reed's character in the book makes so many bad decisions I just want to shake his shoulders. Seems like he's just determined to stay locked up. Reed is a contradiction, in one breath he is planning the vengeful murder of the headmaster, then in the next he is bemoaning the sinfulness of alcohol.
There are a couple "polemics" against novels and yet he's writing a novel! He railed against being a bartender for Esq. Johnson because the serving of alcohol was immoral and indecent. Esq. Johnson was going to take him in, make him part of his family and send him to college, but Reed refused because he didn't want to serve demon alcohol to people. Later he's magically Home and the first job he gets is as a bartender with nary a complaint. Hanging out at the house of ill repute, making more poor decision and ending up back in court. It was crazy making for me.
During Reed's many many years of deserved incarceration new modes of punishment were seemingly invented just for him. Every punishment available was used on him. Including the precursor to waterboarding, the shower bath. He has anger issues and stayed out of jail for only months at a time between convictions and sentences. I counted at least seven different convictions and jail terms, fully served. Stints of 3 years to 10 years. He always blamed the prison system for turning him into a hardened criminal. But he had choices and he choose to do things that landed him in the hot seat time and time again. After the shower bath and a talk with Col. Lewis it seemed at long last he was considering changing his ways and following prison rules. Yes, the prison conditions were inhumane, they were terrible and to use Reed's favorite word, gloomy. The prisoners were treated like slaves and animals, they were beat for the slightest infraction. However he could never see the part he played in things.
His letters that were included in the book gave me hope that he eventually cleaned up his act. I was just exasperated with him, but glad to be able to read his story all these years later.
P.S. I've been entering the Good Reads book give aways for years and I finally won with this book. Thanks Random House.
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August 5, 2016From Melody:
"I can’t stop talking about this memoir of African American life and prison life in the 19th Century. The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict by Austin Reed is “the first known prison narrative by an African American writer,” editor Caleb Smith wrote in the Yale Alumni magazine. The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library purchased the manuscript, and Random House published it as a book this winter.
This book is a remarkable find. Perfect for history buffs, rare manuscript nerds, and African American prison researchers, this book was written by an African American man born free in the 1820s but living much of his life in confinement. Reed was a natural storyteller and his memoir reads like a novel. He documents his experiences both in prison and as a free man, the cruelties of the whip and other 19th Century torture tactics as well as adventures and opportunities he encountered while living free.
This book has not received a ton of press at this point. The New York Times highlighted the find in 2013 before the manuscript was edited for publication, and the Smithsonian Magazine picked up the story for its arts and culture section. It doesn’t have a long holds list and we’ll be buying the e-book and e-audio versions soon.
If there is one nonfiction book you read in 2016, make it Austin Reed’s groundbreaking memoir."
"I can’t stop talking about this memoir of African American life and prison life in the 19th Century. The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict by Austin Reed is “the first known prison narrative by an African American writer,” editor Caleb Smith wrote in the Yale Alumni magazine. The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library purchased the manuscript, and Random House published it as a book this winter.
This book is a remarkable find. Perfect for history buffs, rare manuscript nerds, and African American prison researchers, this book was written by an African American man born free in the 1820s but living much of his life in confinement. Reed was a natural storyteller and his memoir reads like a novel. He documents his experiences both in prison and as a free man, the cruelties of the whip and other 19th Century torture tactics as well as adventures and opportunities he encountered while living free.
This book has not received a ton of press at this point. The New York Times highlighted the find in 2013 before the manuscript was edited for publication, and the Smithsonian Magazine picked up the story for its arts and culture section. It doesn’t have a long holds list and we’ll be buying the e-book and e-audio versions soon.
If there is one nonfiction book you read in 2016, make it Austin Reed’s groundbreaking memoir."
June 13, 2016
Austin Reed's manuscript surfaced, at an estate sale, at this most relevant time in history when the unjust incarcerations of blacks and young people is on the frontlines of the media. This is an amazing piece of history that has finally found it's way out into the world to be heard.
Austin Reed writes well for someone who had little education and that which he did receive was learned at the reformatory. He was first imprisoned at the age of 10!! Reed demonstrates how the deck was stacked against him, and every other child in that reformatory, from the get go. Sad! Ironic that the juvenile home was called a "house of refuge ". In reality a sweat shop with no hope where eventually, no matter how hard a kid tries, they will most likely be whipped or otherwise abused in some way.
It's also clear to see, within this sadness, the roots of our present day prison system and the continual problem of reincarceration .
Austin Reed writes well for someone who had little education and that which he did receive was learned at the reformatory. He was first imprisoned at the age of 10!! Reed demonstrates how the deck was stacked against him, and every other child in that reformatory, from the get go. Sad! Ironic that the juvenile home was called a "house of refuge ". In reality a sweat shop with no hope where eventually, no matter how hard a kid tries, they will most likely be whipped or otherwise abused in some way.
It's also clear to see, within this sadness, the roots of our present day prison system and the continual problem of reincarceration .
April 5, 2016
I liked it very much but was put in an odd or perhaps bad mood after reading the very long intro which was really a very scholarly analysis of the writing. Do yourself a favor and read the long drawn out introduced after you've read the story by Austin Reed. That 'intro' should be placed at the back of the book. Just an opinion. It's how it effected me.
February 22, 2022
CRAZYYYY how it was found at an estate sale! super important manuscript and historical artifact and so so cool. also super awful how he was treated omg abolish prisons! i rated it a 3 however because it wasn't the most interesting read...
April 27, 2025
I have read the first half of this book multiple times, but now I finally finished it! Research paper loading rn
April 12, 2019
This book is a fascinating and honest glimpse into the life of a black man caught in a prison cycle - in the mid 1900s. It provide an important portrayal of the prison system and of the experiences of a northern black man during a time when we tend to focus on slave experiences (rightly). It also portrays other "lesser" groups like the Irish and women in nuanced and complex ways that aren't often seen in other books of this period. Also, Austin Reed is just an interesting person to read about. His writing is very unique, and often even poetic in its own way.
4 stars, not 5, because this is a recently-published unedited manuscript. Don't expect a completely clear or accurate narrative, and it sort of fizzles at the end. However, these aspects of the book do not at all detract from my enjoyment of it, or make it any less important.
The introduction and appendices written by editor Caleb Smith were interesting and helped me understand the book's importance. I especially appreciated the historical timeline of Reed's life.
Honestly, I think this is one of those books that everyone *should* read, alongside contemporary slave narratives like those of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, as revealing an important part of America's past. Its themes are still relevant today.
4 stars, not 5, because this is a recently-published unedited manuscript. Don't expect a completely clear or accurate narrative, and it sort of fizzles at the end. However, these aspects of the book do not at all detract from my enjoyment of it, or make it any less important.
The introduction and appendices written by editor Caleb Smith were interesting and helped me understand the book's importance. I especially appreciated the historical timeline of Reed's life.
Honestly, I think this is one of those books that everyone *should* read, alongside contemporary slave narratives like those of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, as revealing an important part of America's past. Its themes are still relevant today.
August 23, 2020
Reminds me of the con-man type patter of people who, for whatever reason, have become criminals and inveterate liars. Hard to say if there is a genuine thought in the work except that Austin Reed was not a boy to take punishment lightly. As an 7 year old indentured servant he attempted to burn down the house of his employer. His own mother put him out as an indentured servant as she couldn't handle him.
That led to a life in and out of institutions.
After trying to burn down someone's house when his murder plot failed, and after spending his time gambling and stealing and running around with a bad crowd, several years later Austin's conscience is suddenly seared when he is put to work as a bartender. Nevertheless, he sticks with it. This seemed really odd to me until I could make sense of the timeline. He was about 9 years old at the time and is writing a recollection of childhood with his adult agenda. Hat tip to the Temperance Society.
It's a glimpse into the harsh and barbaric penal system in the USA during mid 19th century, New York state. Unlike Europe, the USA mostly couldn't just take problematic people off to another country and dump them there, except for the 2nd and 3rd generation pilgrims who fought with the Native people and sent captives off to be worked to death on various islands.
Austin Reed engaged regularly in criminal behavior and admits to it. On the other hand, he seems to want people to understand that the penal system made him what he was. I am not completely convinced that this was the case. At one point in his prison career some overseer of the prison asks him "when is he going to become a man". I was wondering the same thing. At some point adults have to take stock of themselves and not let others manipulate them to their ruin. As intelligent as Austin declares himself to be, he doesn't seem to get that basic point, so the account just becomes depressing.
Apparently this topic and type of writing was a fad in 19th century period prison protest writing -- critical writing that was well merited by those institutions. He seems to be trying to play on the politics and themes of his day more than giving an honest account. He uses a lot of melodramatic writing and often parroting books he had read, including the Bible.
Was not a fun or interesting read.
That led to a life in and out of institutions.
After trying to burn down someone's house when his murder plot failed, and after spending his time gambling and stealing and running around with a bad crowd, several years later Austin's conscience is suddenly seared when he is put to work as a bartender. Nevertheless, he sticks with it. This seemed really odd to me until I could make sense of the timeline. He was about 9 years old at the time and is writing a recollection of childhood with his adult agenda. Hat tip to the Temperance Society.
It's a glimpse into the harsh and barbaric penal system in the USA during mid 19th century, New York state. Unlike Europe, the USA mostly couldn't just take problematic people off to another country and dump them there, except for the 2nd and 3rd generation pilgrims who fought with the Native people and sent captives off to be worked to death on various islands.
Austin Reed engaged regularly in criminal behavior and admits to it. On the other hand, he seems to want people to understand that the penal system made him what he was. I am not completely convinced that this was the case. At one point in his prison career some overseer of the prison asks him "when is he going to become a man". I was wondering the same thing. At some point adults have to take stock of themselves and not let others manipulate them to their ruin. As intelligent as Austin declares himself to be, he doesn't seem to get that basic point, so the account just becomes depressing.
Apparently this topic and type of writing was a fad in 19th century period prison protest writing -- critical writing that was well merited by those institutions. He seems to be trying to play on the politics and themes of his day more than giving an honest account. He uses a lot of melodramatic writing and often parroting books he had read, including the Bible.
Was not a fun or interesting read.
January 14, 2020
It's kind of hard to write a review for this book or rather to give it stars. That's kinda not the point with archival documents that illuminate some facet of history. Caleb Smith's introduction is great; the footnotes demonstrate just how much work went into researching Austin Reed and the people who populate his life, and if you've ever been a historian (raising my hand) you will be furiously jealous of how many archival sources are intact to provide context for Reed's life and story. Like really, they hit a gold mine with this one.
So, the text itself is of course REMARKABLE. The first autobiographical manuscript of a black man in the American prison system? Like, what??? Right?? I've read Our Nig, Harriet Jacobson, Frederick Douglass, etc., so obviously I wanted to read this important document.
Reed was clearly well-read and the text volleys back and forth between straight-forward accountings of what happened to him, adventure plots and anecdotes clearly scraped from the dime novels of the times, and elements of the gothic and sentimentalism that were still pervasive in mid-nineteenth century literature. His narrative is as much, to me, an accounting of 19th c reading practices as it is an account of the prison system, and I think scholars will do a lot of great work with this text moving forward.
That said, it probably goes without saying that the text itself can get redundant. That Reed was educated at all is remarkable, that he wrote this manuscript and that it survived is remarkable, and so on. Of course. Is it a finely-tuned piece of literature? Absolutely not. Should we judge it as such. Jesus Christ, no. This is why giving it stars feels weird.
So, the text itself is of course REMARKABLE. The first autobiographical manuscript of a black man in the American prison system? Like, what??? Right?? I've read Our Nig, Harriet Jacobson, Frederick Douglass, etc., so obviously I wanted to read this important document.
Reed was clearly well-read and the text volleys back and forth between straight-forward accountings of what happened to him, adventure plots and anecdotes clearly scraped from the dime novels of the times, and elements of the gothic and sentimentalism that were still pervasive in mid-nineteenth century literature. His narrative is as much, to me, an accounting of 19th c reading practices as it is an account of the prison system, and I think scholars will do a lot of great work with this text moving forward.
That said, it probably goes without saying that the text itself can get redundant. That Reed was educated at all is remarkable, that he wrote this manuscript and that it survived is remarkable, and so on. Of course. Is it a finely-tuned piece of literature? Absolutely not. Should we judge it as such. Jesus Christ, no. This is why giving it stars feels weird.
May 28, 2017
A really interesting look into early prison practices in America. The manuscript of this book was finished in Auburn prison around 1858 and provides a perspective into the life of a convict of that time. This is the experience of a set of people that most have forgotten about. The book can also be immensely frustrating at times, because this is a very honest and introspective look at a man's life from age 6 onward, and as all humans do, sometimes he makes irrational or poor decisions. Regardless, this is a look into a harrowing world of punishment, torture, inhumanity, and degradation of the early convict populace in the US. I definitely recommend for anyone interested in the history of the carceral system; reading through some of the old history about early penal systems lays a fairly clear line to the culture of mass incarceration we face in the US now.
I recommend reading this as an ebook; there are archaic words I had to look up quite often and being able to do so seamlessly made the reading experience more accessible.
I recommend reading this as an ebook; there are archaic words I had to look up quite often and being able to do so seamlessly made the reading experience more accessible.
March 15, 2017
This was an interesting read for anyone curious about the prison system. This is an autobiographical account of a man who spent his entire life in and out of the Auburn State prison system since the age of 6 starting in 1833. The manuscript was discovered quite by accident and through dedicated research by the editor Caleb Smith and numerous other people, it was authenticated and printed. If anything, this document really shows how violence only begets violence and begs so many questions: how beneficial is incarceration, how do we justify punishments, and how do we decide which punishment fits what crime, if at all??
I think this should be on every law and police student's reading list!
I think this should be on every law and police student's reading list!
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March 3, 2016In compliance with FTC guidelines, I have won this book through the Goodreads Giveaways.
My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
April 4, 2016
I probably would've loved this if I had read it at another time. I felt so inundated by the scholars' introductions that Reed's actual text was anticlimactic. Pun intended. His disdain for self-pleasuring was amusing
April 11, 2016
I liked this book because of the historical significance, but reading the author's notes first really bogged me down. The indexes are sufficient to explain away any questions.
August 7, 2018
The first prison memoir of a person of African descent in America( being that he identified as mixed race), is a suspenseful tale and riveting autobiographical ( mostly, with some exaggeration) account of Austin Reed who went by the alias Rob Reed. Born near Rochester to a mixed race family who long supported the abolitionist cause , Reed's turn to vice and crime begins early after the death of his father at the hand of an unknown sickness. He begins gambling, causing his mother trouble and starts developing a taste for rebellious activity. One day, on a journey with friends toward an event in downtown , he takes a shortcut through a farmers yard. In his way were a few fruit trees, in which he cuts down with a nearby axe to make an easier path toward his destination. The farmer spots him, and notifiea his mother. It was this event that would begin the process of a habit of criminality, rebelliousness and chronic recidivism that would follow him decades after. Reed's mother gives the farmer Mr. Ladd permisson to take Reed and have him work off the debt of destruction of his precious fruit trees, which he is reluctant and hesitant to. After settling on the farm, Reed is homesick and generally uncomfortable among strangers, annoying Ladd to the point of bringing Reed to the farmhouse and whip him for disobedience. Disgruntled and saddened , Reed confides in a man named Mr. Osborne about his predicament, who then persuades Mr. Ladd to take Reed off of his hands. Mr. Osborne returns Reed back to his home , having to handle business in another area. Alone with his sister, he reveals to her the punishment he endured at the hands of Mr. Ladd. Driven to anger and sadness by her brothers treatment, she heads to the grave of their father to collect his pistol and knife and urges him on a plot of vengeance against Ladd. As he travels disguised in his sisters dress back to Ladd's house, he is spotted by a man whom finds him suspicious, which he hacks across the chest in fear of capture. He then sleeps in a constable house near Ladd's family house, which he plans on burning when he awakens. After setting Ladd's brothers house on fire, he attempts to escape but is caught by a local police force. As a juvenile, he is sentenced to time at the House of Refuge, serving as the beginning of a long history of incarceration and recidivism. The story follows his various escape attempts , life inside 19th century juvenile halls, unpaid labor, abuse and eventual torture, isolation and neglect in Auburn statw prison. The Cat, or a whip created from cat guts and leather, was a special punishment for disobedient prisoners to which Reed fell victim to. Other tortures included the Shower Bath, which was a precursor to Water Boarding, in which prisoners heads were put inside of a device that drowned it for several minutes until they lost consciousness or sanity. Though as a Mulatto , the text hints to racial stratification behind bars where correctional facilities aimed to restore and reform white inmates and punish and humiliate black and mixed race persons. Prisons served as vehicles to reenslave African Americans in New York after it chattel slavery was abolished in 1827. Though about 1800s New York Juvenile facilities and State Prisons, one could easily read this with a George Jackson's " Soledad Brother" or " Blood In My Eye" and find the resounding commonalities between the two time periods and how those periods resemble conditions of mass incarceration today. A fun and insightful read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 18, 2022
Even though this book appears to be 'non-fiction' it reads more fictional and I distrusted it somehow. Why would the child of a free black family somewhat stable go to such extremes? It seems as though the handwritten account while based on real experiences, has been exaggerated in the writing of the author. I can only think this book is more an account of mental problems than anything else. I am probably being affected by my recent reading of Frederick Douglass' writing ['Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave' and 'Eulogy for William Lloyd Garrison']. Both writers [Reed and Douglass] tell of violence against themselves and deaths of parents, but they take very divergent views as their life went on. It was too much for me to read the 270 pages. I also never learned where exactly the manuscript was discovered in Rochester ... would have liked more to have heard where it was 'stored' or 'hidden' and by what families. Impressional people reading this book will go away 'haunted.'
July 5, 2017
READ THIS BOOK! The earliest known prison memoir written by an African American man, this account is an important work that deserves widespread readership. Austin Reed, the memoirist, spent most of his life in prison. He was born a free man in Rochester around 1823, only to become an indentured servant by age six. It is a crime of revenge that lands him in the prison, where he endures harsh treatment and torture, including "the showering bath," an early form of water boarding.
It is an important work in the cannon of literature which looks at African American incarceration and would tie in nicely with a reading of Michelle Alexander's book _The New Jim Crow_, because, as the books editor, Caleb Smith, finds is this: "What Reed sees is the way the prison was prepared to serve that purpose even before emancipation. So he sees the system taking shape that will allow the prison to become the inheritor of the plantation."
It is an important work in the cannon of literature which looks at African American incarceration and would tie in nicely with a reading of Michelle Alexander's book _The New Jim Crow_, because, as the books editor, Caleb Smith, finds is this: "What Reed sees is the way the prison was prepared to serve that purpose even before emancipation. So he sees the system taking shape that will allow the prison to become the inheritor of the plantation."
September 29, 2024
surely a lot of grants and/or doctorates were handed out when the team of academics researched and published this mishmash memoir that was written by a wholly unredeemable person. by his own reckoning he is an arsonist, and attempted murderer by the age of eight!
while the start of the book was enjoyable and felt like a huckleberry finn type tale with the story gallivanting along, the tale stagnates when he stops to give a long lecture about the evils of liquor and his decision not to stay with a family that, other than asking him to serve liquor, treated him well. later on he has a another long rant against masturbation but doesn't seem to think his temper or raising an axe to his mother is as serious an offense.
while the start of the book was enjoyable and felt like a huckleberry finn type tale with the story gallivanting along, the tale stagnates when he stops to give a long lecture about the evils of liquor and his decision not to stay with a family that, other than asking him to serve liquor, treated him well. later on he has a another long rant against masturbation but doesn't seem to think his temper or raising an axe to his mother is as serious an offense.
August 7, 2018
A ton of grammar issues in the book and I do understand it was narrated in 1833 centered around a true story during the era. The motive and moral of the story is uplifting as we, the reader, eventually see negatives turn to positives in the young boy's life. I also enjoyed the constant suspense at the House of Refuge in New York. In closing, thank God for loving and praying mothers who won't quit believing the best for their children.
September 29, 2019
This was fascinating for its uniqueness and for it being my introduction to a different kind of captivity narrative, this being of the prison, rather than the Indian, variety. Given the author's predilection to 'borrow' from the most egregious tropes of sensationalist reform literature of the day, however, it often grew preachy and irritatingly purple in style. Still, it was an interesting read taken in small, occasional doses.
January 1, 2018
Pretty good book. It was sad to see the treatment back then.
June 15, 2018
Very interesting about the prison system, in the 1800's. Also about life and times then. Very good read.
July 20, 2018
As a raw document this is exceptional. It's clearly not a finished work, but it is fascinating to read as a snapshot of a Black person who was in the penal system of pre-Civil War America.
October 12, 2018
Picked this one up at Dollar Tree. Seemed a lot more interesting from the front flap description than it turned out to be.
Not recommended.
Not recommended.
April 23, 2019
Captivating and genuine
The author paints a vivid picture not only of his life incarcerated but also society during that time for a young black boy in the northeast.
The author paints a vivid picture not only of his life incarcerated but also society during that time for a young black boy in the northeast.
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June 21, 2020Fascinating book
March 20, 2024
Read for class. Pretty good book, enjoyed a lot.
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