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Charles Ball (1780 - ?) was an enslaved African-American from Maryland, best known for his account as a fugitive slave, The Life and Adventures of Charles Ball (1837) and having served in the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla of the U.S. Navy under the command of Commodore Joshua Barney in the War of 1812.
Charles Ball was born as a slave in the same county around 1781. He was about four years old, when his owner died. To settle the debts, his mother, several brothers and sisters and he himself were sold to different buyers. His first childhood memory recorded in the book is his being brutally separated from his mother by her buyer: "Young as I was, the horrors of that day sank deeply into my heart, and even at this time, though half a century has elapsed, the terrors of the scene return with painful vividness upon my memory."
By way of inheritance, sale and even as a result of a lawsuit, he is passed on to various slaveholders. From January 1, 1798 to January 1, 1800 he is hired out to serve as a cook on the frigate USS Congress. In 1800, he marries Judah. In 1805, when his eldest son is 4 years old, he is sold to a South Carolinian cotton planter, thus separated from his wife and children who had to remain in Maryland.
In September 1806, he is given as a present to the newly wedded daughter of his owner and has to relocate to Georgia to a new plantation. Shortly afterwards, after the sudden death of the new husband, the new plantation, together with the slaves, including him, is rent out to yet another slaveholder, with whom he builds up a relationship of mutual trust. He becomes the headman on the new plantation, but suffers from the hatred of his master's wife. In 1809, when his dying master is already too weak to interfere, he is cruelly whipped by that woman and her brother. After that, he plans his escape, which he puts into practice after his master's death. Travelling by night to avoid the patrols, using the stars and his obviously excellent memory for orientation, suffering terribly from hunger and cold, not daring to speak to anybody, he returns to his wife and children in early 1810.
Recalling the brutal conditions in slave life, he describes the heartache of having family members sold away -- as his mother and father were, and as he was separated from his wife and children, taken south chained to a line of other slaves. We also learn of the horrific conditions on slave ships bound for the West. On this slave's journey, he recounts that 1/3 of the slaves on the ship died during the passage to Charleston, South Carolina.
In the autobiography, Ball presents himself (or is presented by the writer) as a kind of model slave, who is determined to save his master "obediently and faithfully" , and is proud of the "good character, for industry, sobriety, and humility, which I had established in the neighbourhood" . But still, he has to suffer horrible cruelties. As a boy of twelve he falls into the hands of a severe master who makes him work hard while at the same time exposing him to hunger and cold. He is forcefully separated from his wife and his children, without even being allowed to say goodbye to them. He is kept in chains day and night during a march of four weeks and five days , not even being able to wash the clothes, so that the vermin becomes ?extremely tormenting" . One day he is falsely accused of murder and without any investigation his master prepares to have him flayed (skinned) alive. His life is saved only by the coincidental arrival of a white witness of the crime. On another occasion he is whipped without any reason. These parts of the story show that it was impossible for a slave to avoid the most cruel sufferings even if he complied with all the demands of his oppressors.
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