"Narrative of the Life and Adventures of an American Slave" is a self-published autobiography by an American abolitionist and former slave, Henry Walton Bibb. His book is considered to be one of the best-known slave narratives of the antebellum years in USA. Henry Walton Bibb (1815 â 1854) was an American author and abolitionist who was born as a slave. After escaping from slavery to Canada, he founded an abolitionist newspaper, "The Voice of the Fugitive". He returned to the US and lectured against slavery. Bibb died young, at the age of 39.