Historical voices

This was a hard thing to do; but after much reflection I reasoned myself into the conviction that there was no other way to do, and that after all there was no wrong in it.

I was not without the suggestion, at the moment, that it might be the harbinger of the coming of the Son of man; and in my then state of mind I was prepared to hail Him as my friend and deliverer.

But regrets with slaves were unavailing: my wishes were nothing; my happiness was the sport of my master.

She was nevertheless a slave--a slave for life--a slave in the hands of strangers; and in their hands she saw her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, divided like so many sheep, without being gratified with the small…

While she lived, I felt that I had a strong friend to plead for me in any emergency.

He had written his character on the living parchment of most of their backs, and left them seamed and callous; my back (thanks to my early removal to Baltimore) was yet tender.

I had known what it was to experience kind and even tender treatment; they had known nothing of the sort.

In contemplating the likelihoods and possibilities of our circumstances, I probably suffered more than most of my fellow-servants.

His going out into the world was like a living man going into the tomb, who with open eyes, sees himself buried out of sight and hearing of wife, children, and friends of kindred tie.

There was no improvement in condition probable--no correspondence possible--no reunion attainable.

On the other hand, the slave was a fixture; he had no choice, no goal, but was pegged down to one single spot, and must take root there or nowhere.

We were all appalled before that power which, to human seeming, could bless or blast us in a moment.

One word of the appraisers, against all preferences and prayers, could sunder all the ties of friendship and affection, even to separating husbands and wives, parents and children.

Our destiny was to be fixed for life, and we had no more voice in the decision of the question than the oxen and cows that stood chewing at the hay-mow.

Horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children-- all holding the same rank in the scale of social existence, and all subjected to the same narrow inspection, to ascertain their value in gold and silver--the only standard of worth…

Sickness, adversity, and death may interfere with the plans and purposes of all, but the slave had the added danger of changing homes, in the separations unknown to other men.

It furnished me a new insight into the unnatural power to which I was subjected.

No one could tell amongst which pile of chattels I might be flung.

It was not my enslavement at the then present time which most affected me; the being a slave for life was the saddest thought.

Thus assured and thus cheered on under the inspiration of hope, I worked and prayed with a light heart, believing that my life was under the guidance of a wisdom higher than my own.

His words made a very deep impression upon me, and I verily felt that some such work was before me, though I could not see how I could ever engage in its performance.

I could teach him “the letter,” but he could teach me “the spirit,” and refreshing times we had together, in singing and praying.

I saw the world in a new light, and my great concern was to have everybody converted.

I loved all mankind, slaveholders not excepted though I abhorred slavery more than ever.