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March 17 - March 18, 2024
virtuous indignation
the powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory, completely taken by surprise—the
I therefore endeavored to instil hope and courage into his mind, in order that he might dare to engage in a vocation so anomalous and responsible for a person in his situation;
Admitting this to have been an extraordinary case of mental deterioration, it proves at least that the white slave can sink as low in the scale of humanity as the black one.
how accursed is that system, which entombs the godlike mind of man, defaces the divine image, reduces those who by creation were crowned with glory and honor to a level with four-footed beasts, and exalts the dealer in human flesh above all that is called God!
So profoundly ignorant of the nature of slavery are many persons, that they are stubbornly incredulous whenever they read or listen to any recital of the cruelties which are daily inflicted on its victims.
Let it never be forgotten, that no slaveholder or overseer can be convicted of any outrage perpetrated on the person of a slave, however diabolical it may be, on the testimony of colored witnesses, whether bond or free.
Is it possible for the human mind to conceive of a more horrible state of society?
They are the essential ingredients, not the occasional results, of the system.
They say the fathers, in 1776, signed the Declaration of Independence with the halter about their necks. You, too, publish your declaration of freedom with danger compassing you around.
most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.
that slaveholders have ordained, and by law established, that
the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts, and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well as pleasurable; for by this cunning arrangement, the slaveholder, in cases not a few, sustains to his slaves the double relation of master and father.
He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slaveholding. He
would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would
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Colonel Lloyd kept from three to four hundred slaves on his home plantation,
and owned a large number more on the neighboring farms belonging to him.
not have cost more than seven dollars.
on one common bed,—the cold, damp floor,—each covering himself or herself with their miserable blankets;
no age nor sex finds any favor.
It was enough to chill the blood and stiffen the hair of an ordinary man to hear him talk.
His death was regarded by the slaves as the result of a merciful providence.
He was called by the slaves a good overseer.
They would sometimes sing the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous tone, and the most rapturous sentiment in the most pathetic tone.
I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject could do.
I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear.
To those
songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery.
Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.
They never knew when they were safe from punishment.
Colonel Lloyd could not brook any contradiction from a slave. When he spoke, a slave must stand, listen, and tremble; and such was literally the case.
This is the penalty of telling the truth, of telling the simple truth, in answer to a series of plain questions.
The slaveholders have been known to send in spies among their slaves, to ascertain their views and feelings in regard to their condition.
Moreover, slaves are like other people, and imbibe prejudices quite common to others. They think their own better than that of others. Many, under the influence of this prejudice, think their own masters are better than the masters of other slaves; and this, too, in some cases, when the very reverse is true.
It was considered as being bad enough to be a slave; but to be a poor man’s slave was deemed a disgrace indeed!
He was one of those who could torture the slightest look, word, or gesture, on the part of the slave, into impudence, and would treat it accordingly. There must be no answering back to him; no explanation was allowed a slave, showing himself to have been wrongfully accused.
He was just proud enough to demand the most debasing homage of the slave, and quite servile enough to crouch, himself, at the feet of the master.
He alone seemed cool and collected.
It
did produce sensation, but not enough to bring the murderess to punishment.
He became quite attached to me, and was a sort of protector of me.
It was almost a sufficient motive, not only to make me take off what would be called by pig-drovers the mange, but the skin itself. I went at it in good earnest, working for the first time with the hope of reward.
“being hanged in England is preferable to dying a natural death in Ireland.”
interesting myself in what was in the distance rather than in things near by or behind.
Going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity.
But I should be false to the earliest sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed the opinion. I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence.
The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon.
What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most hated. That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was to me a great good,
She at first lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in mental darkness.
to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another.
