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Louis Hughes (c. 1832-1913) was an African-American slave born in Virginia. He is the writer of the slave memoir Thirty Years a Slave.
Though Hughes did not work daily in field labor, he did have bad experiences with Edward's wife, Madam McGee. "Some weeks it seemed I was whipped for nothing," Hughes recalled, "just to please my mistress' fancy." Hughes and his wife Matilda had twin girls while in slavery, but due to neglect of the children caused by a dispute between the Madam and Matilda, the children died, for which Hughes blamed the Madam. The conflict between Matilda and the Madam occurred because Matilda wished to sell her twins to a new enslavers in hopes that they would be able to survive, but Edward and the Madam refused to allow her to do so. Matilda was also unable to produce breast milk to nourish her children due to the brutality that the Madam had consistently inflicted upon her body. One day, after the Madam overheard an old slave woman singing a song of freedom, the Madam exclaimed, "Don't think you are going to be free; you darkies were made by God and ordained to wait upon us."
Three of his escape attempts ended with severe beatings, the scars of which he bore for the rest of his life, he said, on his body and soul. His fifth attempt was a success, in June 1865, the same month the Confederacy surrendered in his state.
Hughes died in Milwaukee 1913 and is buried at Forest Home Cemetery next to Matilda. His original house in Milwaukee on 9th Street was still standing as of 2020, but was unmarked, boarded up and "not long for this world".
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