Even when promised freedom, Letitia did not receive it and stayed enslaved as Clarke claims Campbell's heirs destroyed the will.

During this time, Clarke fell into the hands of his grandfather's children, being the property of William and Betsy Benson, who treated him brutally.

what a sensation, when it first visits the bosom of a full grown man — one, born to bondage — one, who had been taught from early infancy, that this was his inevitable lot for life.He published Narrative of the Sufferings of Lewis Clarke in 1845, and in 1846 an extended edition which included the experiences of his brother Milton.

In the 1850 U.S. census he is listed living on the farm of William Storum, father of his recently deceased wife and also father-in-law of African-American abolitionist Jermain Wesley Loguen.

[4] After the end of the Civil War, Clarke returned South and died on December 16, 1897, in Lexington, Kentucky where he was a member of Historic St Paul AME Church.