Henry Ossian Flipper, the Colored Cadet at West Point / Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, U.S.A., First Graduate of Color from the U.S. Military Academy

Etext prepared by Tony Adam anthony-adam@tamu.edu
Henry Ossian Flipper, The Colored Cadet at West Point. Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, U.S.A., First Graduate of Color from the U.S. Military Academy
TO The Faculty of Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga., —AND TO THE PRESIDENT IN PARTICULAR, TO WHOSE CAREFUL MENTAL AND MORAL TRAINING OF MYSELF IS DUE ALL MY SUCCESS AT THE MILITARY ACADEMY AT WEST POINT, N. Y., I AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATE THIS VOLUME, AS IN SOME SORT A TOKEN OF THAT HEARTFELT GRATITUDE WHICH I SO DEEPLY FEEL, BUT CAN SO POORLY EXPRESS.
THE following pages were written by request. They claim to give an accurate and impartial narrative of my four years' life while a cadet at West Point, as well as a general idea of the institution there. They are almost an exact transcription of notes taken at various times during those four years. Any inconsistencies, real or apparent, in my opinions or in the impressions made upon me, are due to the fact that they were made at different times at a place where the feelings of all were constantly undergoing material change.
They do not pretend to merit. Neither are they written for the purpose of criticising the Military Academy or those in any way connected with it.
My notes have been seen and read. If I please those who requested me to publish them I shall be content, as I have no other object in putting them before the public.
HENRY OSSIAN FLIPPER, the eldest of five brothers, and the subject of this narrative, was born in Thomasville, Thomas County, Georgia, on the 21st day of March, 1856. He and his mother were the property (?) of Rev. Reuben H. Lucky, a Methodist minister of that place. His father, Festus Flipper, by trade a shoemaker and carriage-trimmer, was owned by Ephraim G. Ponder, a successful and influential slave-dealer.
In 1859 Mr. Ponder, having retired from business, returned to Georgia from Virginia with a number of mechanics, all slaves,and among whom was the father of young Flipper. He established a number of manufactories in Atlanta, then a growing inland town of Georgia. He married about this time a beautiful, accomplished, and wealthy lady. Flipper, as he was generally called,had married before this, and had been taken back alone to his native Virginia to serve an apprenticeship under a carriage-trimmer. This served, Mr. Ponder joined his wife in Thomasville, bringing with him, as stated, a number of mechanics.