Historical voices

The same traits of character might be seen in Colonel Lloyd’s slaves, as are seen in the slaves of the political parties.

The competitors for this office sought as diligently to please their overseers, as the office-seekers in the political parties seek to please and deceive the people.

A representative could not be prouder of his election to a seat in the American Congress, than a slave on one of the out-farms would be of his election to do errands at the Great House Farm.

His presence made it both the field of blood and of blasphemy.

It was enough to chill the blood and stiffen the hair of an ordinary man to hear him talk.

He seemed to take pleasure in manifesting his fiendish barbarity.

There must be no halting; every one must be at his or her post; and woe betides them who hear not this morning summons to the field; for if they are not awakened by the sense of hearing, they are by the sense of feeling: no age nor sex…

It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass.

I never shall forget it whilst I remember any thing.

If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural; for thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who, like myself, owe their existence to…

I know of such cases; and it is worthy of remark that such slaves invariably suffer greater hardships, and have more to contend with, than others.

Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger.

I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day.

For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child.

It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age.

My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother.

I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.

A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood.

By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.

I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.

It would astonish, if not amuse, the older citizens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and…

However strictly the citizen may exclude from his premises all foreign luxuries, fine cloths, fine silks, rich wines, golden chains, and diamond rings,--still, for the possession of his house, his barn, and his homespun he is to be…

In short, by this system the burden of revenue falls almost entirely on the wealthy and luxurious few, while the substantial and labouring many, who live at home and upon home products, go entirely free.

By this system, the man who contents himself to live upon the products of his own country pays nothing at all.