The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict is a memoir and manuscript by African American prisoner Austin Reed. Keeping a diary of his life in prison around the 1850's, it is thought that Reed's work is the only surviving diary of an African American while in prison in America. This is because, at the time, literacy rates among African Americans were very low.
Austin Reed was born into a life of despair, simply because of his race. At this point in American history, things weren't as bad as they could have been, but they were still pretty bad. Reed lived in New York, so he was not a slave and did not have to deal with much segregation. However, the society in which he lived still automatically and without thought put him at the bottom of the social pyramid.
At first, Reed thought he would try to live his life perfectly, showing the world that he could be more than everyone thought he was. This was, at the time, the dream of many young African Americans, and that dream was something that simply was not allowed. Reed quickly forgot his wishes, and started becoming entranced by books that sensationalized robbery.
It was impressive that Reed could read, and once he got going, there was no stopping him. Reading, however, contributed to the downsides of his life - partially influenced by literature, he thought he could make a career off of robbery and banditry. That is why, at a rather young age, he was sent to a juvenile delinquent center for theft.
The center he went to in New York was not very harsh, and it was mostly made up of other African Americans like him. Multiple times a month, the custodian would be beaten to the ground and some of the boys would escape. Escape was made easy on purpose, because no one really wanted to see that the boys stayed out of trouble. Several times, Reed escaped, but was eventually taken back, where he wrote his diary.
In his later life, Reed became a farmer's apprentice, which was a bit like slave labor, but not the same. Wages were very low, and the work was hard, but this was typical for unskilled labor at the time. One year, the farmer had an incident with fire, and Reed was accused of arson. Reed did try to make it sound as if he was only accused because of his race, but there is ample evidence that he is the one that started the fire on the farm.
He was sent to the Auburn State Prison, where there was more security and he could not escape. Multiple times, he writes that he is trying to reform himself and his standards, but he always kept going back to his bad gambling and stealing habits. Some of what Reed did, for sure, only sentenced him because of his race, but many of it, according to modern historians, was actually done.
In 2016, the memoirs of Austin Reed were put together by Caleb Smith to form this book. Caleb Smith added in annotations and other, somewhat fictional elements to the book that likely did not occur in the time of Reed.
