Perceiving that I was getting along so well, I began, slave as I was, to think about taking a wife.  So I fixed my mind upon Miss Lucy Williams, a slave of Thomas Devereaux, Esq., an eminent lawyer in the place; but failed in my undertaking.  Then I thought I never would marry; but at the end of two or three years my resolution began to slide away, till finding I could not keep it longer I set out once more in pursuit of a wife.  So I fell in with her to whom I am now united, Miss Martha Curtis, and the bargain between us was completed.  I next went to her master, Mr. Boylan, and asked him, according to the custom, if I might “marry his woman.”  His reply was, “Yes, if you will behave yourself.”  I told him I would.  “And make her behave herself!” To this I also assented; and then proceeded to ask the approbation of my master, which was granted.  So in May, 1828, I was bound as fast in wedlock as a slave can be.  God may at any time sunder that band in a freeman; either master may do the same at pleasure in a slave.  The bond is not recognized in law.  But in my case it has never been broken; and now it cannot be, except by a higher power.

When we had been married nine months and one day, we were blessed with a son, and two years afterwards with a daughter.  My wife also passed from the hands of Mr. Boylan into those of Mr. Benjamin B. Smith, a merchant, a member and class-leader in the Methodist church, and in much repute for his deep piety and devotion to religion.  But grace (of course) had not wrought in the same manner upon the heart of Mr. Smith, as nature had done upon that of Mr. Boylan, who made no religious profession.  This latter gentleman used to give my wife, who was a favorite slave, (her mother nursed every one of his own children,) sufficient food and clothing to render her comfortable, so that I had to spend for her but little, except to procure such small articles of extra comfort as I was prompted to from time to time.  Indeed Mr. Boylan was regarded as a very kind master to all the slaves about him; that is, to his house servants; nor did he inflict much cruelty upon his field hands, except by proxy.  The overseer on his nearest plantation (I know but little about the rest) was a very cruel man; in one instance, as it was said among the slaves, he whipped a man to death; but of course denied that the man died in consequence of the whipping.  Still it was the choice of my wife to pass into the hands of Mr. Smith, as she had become attached to him in consequence of belonging to the same church, and receiving his religious instruction and counsel as her class-leader, and in consequence of the peculiar devotedness to the cause of religion for which he was noted, and which he always seemed to manifest.—­But when she became his slave, he withheld both from her and her children, the needful food and clothing, while he exacted from them to the uttermost all the labor they were able