Turtles on a Black Gum Tree

The Life of Charles Ball

Charles Ball was born into slavery in Calvert County, Maryland and served there under several owners until, at twenty-six, he was sold and taken to South Carolina as part of a fifty-person coffle. After nearly seven years of grueling and often intolerable treatment in South Carolina and Georgia, he fled Georgia and returned to Maryland. This creative rendering of Balls' 1837 autobiography closely follows the original narrative. It recounts his upbringing in Maryland, his forced march to the deep South, and his escape and journey back home. Although he died in obscurity, Charles Ball left us with perhaps the most comprehensive and uncompromising portraits of slavery in the post-colonial era.

©2023 Gary McIlroy (P)2025 Gary McIlroy