Boston King was born a slave sometime around 1760 on a plantation run by a man named Richard Waring in Charleston, South Carolina. He lived there with his father who had been taken from Africa when he was very young, and his mother who was a skilled nurse and seamstress. King was a house servant up until the age of 16 when he was sent to a nearby town to become a carpenter’s apprentice. His time as an apprentice was not the best time in his life, because the person he was apprenticed to often beat him mercilessly. One time, two years into his apprenticeship, he was put in charge of the shop and it was broken into. When his master got home and found out the shop was broken into, King was beaten without mercy – so badly, that he wasn’t able to do anything for the next fourteen days.
After the beating, his master, who still hadn’t lost ‘ownership’ of him, found him a new apprenticeship. One day, after the start of the Revolutionary War, King borrowed a horse from a friend of the person he was apprenticed to and he let another servant use the horse. After the servant failed to return the horse in time, King expected the worst punishment and decided to join the British army in Charlestown. He chose to do this because he heard that if you fought in the war on the British side you would gain your freedom. Therefore, if he gained his freedom he wouldn’t be punished by his master. Eventually, King managed to do just that and join the British army who had no problem accepting him. Almost as soon as he settled in, he contracted a deadly disease known as smallpox which made him unable to travel with the rest of his regiment because smallpox is a contagious disease and he couldn’t risk infecting his fellow soldiers. A few days after he was left behind, the colonial army found him and the other people infected with smallpox but didn’t take any of them prisoner for fear that they would be infected with smallpox. Once he recovered from smallpox, he joined with a band of British soldiers as a servant for Captain Grey. One day when he was catching fish for Captain Grey, orders to leave camp within fifteen minutes reached the regiment. Since King wasn’t there and thus didn’t hear the order, he was left behind. When he returned to the camp he was surprised to find only a few militias, along with Captain Lewes, who commanded the militia left behind.
Captain Lewes was planning to desert the loyalist army. He took King and horses with him. When King realized Lewes’ plan to desert he escaped and warned his regiment. Thanks to King the horses were saved but Lewes was never captured. King made his way back to his regiment. After the war, Boston King traveled to New York and met his soon-to-be wife Violet. Violet was an enslaved woman from North Carolina who had also joined the British army and made her way to New York where she was promised her freedom because of how she contributed to the war. Then King, who was now a skilled carpenter, was evacuated to Birchtown, Nova Scotia with his wife and some other refugees because the colonists won the war and Boston and Violet were afraid that they would be re-enslaved. Once they arrived, his wife became the first convent of Moses Wilkinson, who was a Wesleyan Methodist preacher. King wasn’t that religious but his wife’s beliefs rubbed off on him and caused him to become a Methodist minister of the Black Wesleyan congregation at Preston, near Halifax. In 1785 he became a preacher that traveled all around Nova Scotia.
Later in his life, he even wrote his own book which was called Memoirs of the Life of Boston King, which was about all the hardships that he went through in order to gain liberty and freedom. After King’s wife died at an unknown time he remarried and lived happily with his second wife until around 1802 when they both died. Boston King should be remembered as someone who was determined to gain their freedom and someone that never gave up on their hopes and dreams. We should remember people like Boston King because their voices are normally unheard and nobody ever mentions their point of view. Boston King Face showing elation Hands in the air with a taste of liberty Determined to be freed from the grip of slavery Preaching his beliefs to the world with enthusiasm And determination, Happy to be alive and free.
Lush green forests in the background No sign of war. Wearing a fresh, brand new white shirt, Signaling the start of a new era. Sweat is dripping down my face as I ponder what my master will do once he realizes that I have lost his prized Arabian horse. Taking into consideration how my master had punished me for the smallest things in the past I finally come to the conclusion that I will have to run away. Clenching my fists, I know there is no turning back. I hated being treated like an unimportant object and finally, I will do something about it. Without thinking my legs push me through the wet marsh and into freedom, the only thing keeping me going is my desire for liberty and my master never to beat me again.
