When I entered the church, recollections of my mother came over me, and I felt subdued in spirit.  There she had presented me for baptism, without any reason to feel ashamed.  She had been married, and had such legal rights as slavery allows to a slave.  The vows had at least been sacred to her, and she had never violated them.  I was glad she was not alive, to know under what different circumstances her grandchildren were presented for baptism.  Why had my lot been so different from my mother’s? Her master had died when she was a child; and she remained with her mistress till she married.  She was never in the power of any master; and thus she escaped one class of the evils that generally fall upon slaves.

When my baby was about to be christened, the former mistress of my father stepped up to me, and proposed to give it her Christian name.  To this I added the surname of my father, who had himself no legal right to it; for my grandfather on the paternal side was a white gentleman.  What tangled skeins are the genealogies of slavery!  I loved my father; but it mortified me to be obliged to bestow his name on my children.

When we left the church, my father’s old mistress invited me to go home with her.  She clasped a gold chain round my baby’s neck.  I thanked her for this kindness; but I did not like the emblem.  I wanted no chain to be fastened on my daughter, not even if its links were of gold.  How earnestly I prayed that she might never feel the weight of slavery’s chain, whose iron entereth into the soul!

XV.  Continued Persecutions.

My children grew finely; and Dr. Flint would often say to me, with an exulting smile.  “These brats will bring me a handsome sum of money one of these days.”

I thought to myself that, God being my helper, they should never pass into his hands.  It seemed to me I would rather see them killed than have them given up to his power.  The money for the freedom of myself and my children could be obtained; but I derived no advantage from that circumstance.  Dr. Flint loved money, but he loved power more.  After much discussion, my friends resolved on making another trial.  There was a slaveholder about to leave for Texas, and he was commissioned to buy me.  He was to begin with nine hundred dollars, and go up to twelve.  My master refused his offers.  “Sir,” said he, “she don’t belong to me.  She is my daughter’s property, and I have no right to sell her.  I mistrust that you come from her paramour.  If so, you may tell him that he cannot buy her for any money; neither can he buy her children.”