After a brief period of suspense, the will of my mistress was read, and we learned that she had bequeathed me to her sister’s daughter, a child of five years old.  So vanished our hopes.  My mistress had taught me the precepts of God’s Word:  “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  “Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.”  But I was her slave, and I suppose she did not recognize me as her neighbor.  I would give much to blot out from my memory that one great wrong.  As a child, I loved my mistress; and, looking back on the happy days I spent with her, I try to think with less bitterness of this act of injustice.  While I was with her, she taught me to read and spell; and for this privilege, which so rarely falls to the lot of a slave, I bless her memory.

She possessed but few slaves; and at her death those were all distributed among her relatives.  Five of them were my grandmother’s children, and had shared the same milk that nourished her mother’s children.  Notwithstanding my grandmother’s long and faithful service to her owners, not one of her children escaped the auction block.  These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend.

II.  The New Master And Mistress.

Dr. Flint, a physician in the neighborhood, had married the sister of my mistress, and I was now the property of their little daughter.  It was not without murmuring that I prepared for my new home; and what added to my unhappiness, was the fact that my brother William was purchased by the same family.  My father, by his nature, as well as by the habit of transacting business as a skillful mechanic, had more of the feelings of a freeman than is common among slaves.  My brother was a spirited boy; and being brought up under such influences, he daily detested the name of master and mistress.  One day, when his father and his mistress both happened to call him at the same time, he hesitated between the two; being perplexed to know which had the strongest claim upon his obedience.  He finally concluded to go to his mistress.  When my father reproved him for it, he said, “You both called me, and I didn’t know which I ought to go to first.”

“You are my child,” replied our father, “and when I call you, you should come immediately, if you have to pass through fire and water.”

Poor Willie!  He was now to learn his first lesson of obedience to a master.  Grandmother tried to cheer us with hopeful words, and they found an echo in the credulous hearts of youth.

When we entered our new home we encountered cold looks, cold words, and cold treatment.  We were glad when the night came.  On my narrow bed I moaned and wept, I felt so desolate and alone.