Charles Ball

Slavery in the United States: a Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, a Black Man, Who Lived Forty Years in Maryland, South Carolina

Charles Ball (1780-? ) was an African- American slave from Maryland, best known for his account as a fugitive slave, Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball (1837). In 1805, he was sold to a South Carolinian cotton planter, thus estranged from his wife and children who remained in Maryland. After several escapes and recaptures, he wrote his autobiography with the help of Caucasian lawyer Isaac Fisher. He also wrote Fifty Years in Chains; or, The Life of an American Slave (1858).