Henry Clay Bruce was born a slave in Virginia in 1836. That year his owner, Lemuel Bruce, died and Henry and his family were given to Rebecca Bruce, Lemuel's daughter. When Rebecca married Pettis Perkinson, Henry and his family moved with her to the new home, known as the Rowlett Place. In 1844, Perkinson moved the family and slaves some fifteen hundred miles to Chariton County, Missouri, but he soon returned to Virginia, leaving his slaves behind. In 1847, Perkinson requested that his brother-in-law bring the slaves. In 1849, Perkinson again moved the household, this time to a cotton plantation in Mississippi. The next year Bruce and his family were on the move again, returning to Missouri with Perkinson. Bruce was faithful to his master until 1864, when he escaped with his fiancée to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. There, he struggled to support himself and his new wife until his brother helped him secure a civil servant position in Washington, D. C. Bruce died in 1902.

In his memoir, The New Man: Twenty-Nine Years a Slave, Twenty-Nine Years a Free Man (1895) Bruce offers a history of his life as well as reflections on the treatment of slaves and the problems that African Americans faced during Reconstruction. He also gives an account of the causes for the Civil War, from a slave's perspective. The memoir begins with happy memories of his childhood. Throughout the narrative, Bruce evaluates the character of slaves and white men alike, proposing that violent, dangerous men in the world—whether slave or free—are the result of "bad blood." He also discusses in detail the role of the poor white class in antebellum and Reconstruction southern society. This volume serves as both a personal account of Bruce's life and as a chronicle of the diverse situations that slaves experienced in various parts of the South.

Harris Henderson