http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/12568246

The autobiography of Nicholas Said, a native of Bornou, Eastern Soudan, Central Africa

Nicholas Said, born in Sudan, Africa ca. 1836, was the grandson of his small country's ruling chief. As a child, he was kidnapped by another African tribe and sold into slavery. He changed hands several times, and traveled throughout much of the world, including Africa, Russia, Europe, the West Indies, and North America. While in Russia and Europe, he was owned by Prince Troubetzkoÿ, a member of a Polish/Lithuanian royal family with ties in Russia. Said became a Christian during his time with the Prince. Many of Said's owners are depicted as kind masters, although he does note that he was regularly whipped by certain masters. After arriving in the United States, his last master went to Quebec, Canada, and never returned. Left with nothing as his few possessions were taken to pay his master's debt, Said traveled throughout the United States, teaching, working as a deckhand, tutoring, and writing his Autobiography, which was published in 1873 and contains descriptions of the politics, customs, and landscape of the various towns and countries he traveled to and lived in. He expresses concern about the plight of American slaves and freedmen, as well as that of those in the West Indies, but his own experiences in slavery are rarely addressed and he does not present mistreatment as a focus of his life experiences.

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