New book recounts personal tale of two slaves’ journey to freedom

An upcoming book will offer rare personal, firsthand accounts of slaves’ lives.

Tentatively titled “Rowing to Freedom,” it tells the stories of Wallace Turnage and John Washington and recalls how both men used rowboats to escape from slavery during the Civil War.

Most other documents about slaves’ experiences come from government records, noted Yale historian David Blight, who will supply analysis and research into what became of the men after their autobiographies end.

The book from Harcourt Trade Publishers will be released in 2006.

“These are two young men who took it on their own bravery to find their own freedom,” Blight said.

“They really humanize the process by which a slave actually became free.”

Turnage’s story became known through unusual circumstances. His daughter, Lydia Turnage Connolly, died in 1984 and left the manuscript to her Greenwich, Conn., neighbor, Gladys Watt.

Watt saw a TV show in 2001 about the importance of slave narratives and arrived soon after at the Greenwich Historical Society to donate Turnage’s manuscript.

Blight learned of it when he gave a talk there in 2002.

Washington’s narrative has been at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Blight said he said he was struck by the fear and religion that run through both narratives.

They also showed “a desire to be known,” he said.

“They really wanted them to be read.”