John P. Parker
Stuart Seely Sprague, Editor
His Promised Land
The Autobiography of John P. Parker,
Former Slave and Conductor on the
Underground Railroad
"Surpasses all previous slave narratives. . . . Usually we need to invent our American heroes. With the publication of Parker's extraordinary memoir, we seem to have discovered the genuine article."
—Joseph J. Ellis, Civilization
John P. Parker is one of the few African Americans whose battle against slavery we can now turn to in his own words. He recounts dramatically how he helped fugitive slaves to cross the Ohio River from Kentucky and go north to freedom. He risked his life—hiding in coffins, diving off a steamboat with bounty hunters on his trail—and his freedom to fight for the freedom of his people.
"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, Washington Post
"Riveting. . . . Astonishing and believable."—Nell Irvin Painter
"A rip-roaring adventure yarn. . . . History of the best kind."—Kirkus Reviews
Stuart Seely Sprague is professor emeritus of history at Morehead State University in Kentucky. Royalties from His Promised Land will go to the John P. Parker Historical Society, which plans to restore Parker's house in Ripley, Ohio, as a museum.
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