His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad. This item is unavailable.His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad

An unusual and stirring account of the rarely told story of how the underground war against slavery was foughtand sometimes won. This narrative, never before published, was dictated to a newspaperman after the Civil War. It follows John P. Parker, a determined young slave who is forced from his family in Virginia and made to walk to Alabama, where he is sold to a doctor. Escaping to New Orleans, after a series of harrowing near-captures, he is found by his master and returned to Mobile. He convinces a widow to buy him and earns his way out of slavery through working in a foundry. Moving to Ohio, Parker becomes a major member of the abolitionist movement in Ripley, a stronghold of the Underground Railroad.

Riveting. . . . Astonishing and believable. -- Nell Irvin Painter

Riveting. . . . Astonishing and believable.--Nell Irvin Painter

John P. Parker was an extraordinary man . . . a person who spent much of his life facing racial battles yet saw the world through colorblind eyes. . . . As a slave seeking escape and then as a free man aiding others, fighting 'my own little personal war on slavery, ' [Parker] lived a perpetual Perils of Paul and did so with unending zest. . . . Now he can be given his due. --Jonathan Yardley"

Riveting. . . . Astonishing and believable. --Nell Irvin Painter"

A rip-roaring adventure yarn. . . . History of the best kind.

John P. Parker was an extraordinary man...He seems to have been that true American rarity, a person who spent much of his life facing racial battles yet saw the world through colorblind eyes...He lived a perpetual Perils of Paul and did so with unending zest...Now he can be given his due.--Jonathan Yardley

Riveting...Astonishing and believable.--Nell Irvin Painter

A rip-roaring adventure yarn...History of the best kind.