Born to black slaves in 1836, H. C. Bruce took the name of his master, a farmer in Prince Edward County, Virginia. After years of slaving on the plantation in Missouri and working in tobacco factories, Bruce escaped to freedom in Kansas with his future wife. In the 1880s, he moved to the District of Columbia to take a federal job arranged by his brother, Blanche K. Bruce, a senator from Mississippi. The New Man is unusual in its double perspective: for Bruce's life was split by servitude and freedom, and his experience gave heightened meaning to both. Bruce provides insights into the slave's...