Historical voices

Personality swallowed up in the sordid idea of property!

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 applied…

Men and women, young and old, married and single; moral and intellectual beings, in open contempt of their humanity, level at a blow with horses, sheep, horned cattle and swine!

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

Thus early, I got a foretaste of that painful uncertainty which slavery brings to the ordinary lot of mortals.

Meanwhile, I resolved to add to my educational attainments the art of writing.

I now not only had the hope of freedom, but a foreshadowing of the means by which I might, some day, gain that inestimable boon.

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

I nevertheless remembered their words and their advice, and looked forward to an escape to the north, as a possible means of gaining the liberty for which my heart panted.

Thus assured, and 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.

He fanned my already intense love of knowledge into a flame, by assuring me that I was to be a useful man in the world.

He threw my thoughts into a channel from which they have never entirely diverged.

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

I have gathered scattered pages from this holy book, from the filthy street gutters of Baltimore, and washed and dried them, that in the moments of my leisure, I might get a word or two of wisdom from them.

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

I seemed to live in a new world, surrounded by new objects, and to be animated by new hopes and desires.

I was, for weeks, a poor, brokenhearted mourner, traveling through the darkness and misery of doubts and fears.

I cannot say that I had a very distinct notion of what was required of me; but one thing I knew very well—I was wretched, and had no means of making myself otherwise.

It was impossible for me not to hope much from the abolition movement, when I saw it supported by the Almighty, and armed with DEATH!

Thus, the light of this grand movement broke in upon my mind, by degrees; and I must say, that, ignorant as I then was of the philosophy of that movement, I believe in it from the first—and I believed in it, partly, because I saw that it…

I had a deep satisfaction in the thought, that the rascality of slaveholders was not concealed from the eyes of the world, and that I was not alone in abhorring the cruelty and brutality of slavery.

Hearing such charges often repeated, I, naturally enough, received the impression that abolition—whatever else it might be—could not be unfriendly to the slave, nor very friendly to the slaveholder.

I will not censure her harshly; she cannot censure me, for she knows I speak but the truth, and have acted in my opposition to slavery, just as she herself would have acted, in a reverse of circumstances.

We were both victims to the same overshadowing evil—she, as mistress, I, as slave.