Henry Bibb was born a slave in 1815 in Shelby County Kentucky. Bibb learned to read and write when he was 18 years old in a Sabbath School, which was closed down by neighborhood patrols. Bibb wrote an autobiography where he professes to “…learned the art of running away to perfection.” In his autobiography he paints a vivid picture of life as a Slave in the South and he made it his ambition to run away every chance he got. He finally was able to run away to Canada and became a free man. According to Documenting the American South, once in Canada Henry Bibb was instrumental in creating Canada 's first black newspaper called “Voice of the Fugitive.” Bibb became an abolitionist and well-known African American