At this time an event occurred, which, while it cast a cloud over the prospects of some of my fellow slaves, was a rainbow over mine.  My master died, and his widow, by the will, became sole executrix of his property.  To the surprize of all, the bank of which he had been cashier presented a claim against the estate for forty thousand dollars.  By a compromise, this sum was reduced to twenty thousand dollars; and my mistress, to meet the amount, sold some of her slaves, and hired out others.  I hired my time of her,[A] for which I paid her a price varying from one hundred dollars to one hundred and twenty dollars per year.  This was a privilege which comparatively few slaves at the South enjoy; and in this I felt truly blessed.

[Footnote A:  It is contrary to the laws of the State for a slave to have command of his own time in this way, but in Raleigh it is sometimes winked at.  I knew one slave-man who was doing well for himself, taken up by the public authorities and hired out for the public good, three times in succession for this offence.  The time of hiring in such a case is one year.  The master is subject to a fine.  But generally, as I have said, if the slave is orderly and appears to be making nothing, neither he nor the master is interfered with.]

I commenced the manufacture of pipes and tobacco on an enlarged scale.  I opened a regular place of business, labelled my tobacco in a conspicuous manner with the names of “Edward and Lunsford Lane,” and of some of the persons who sold it for me,—­established agencies for the sale in various parts of the State, one at Fayetteville, one at Salisbury, one at Chapel Hill, and so on,—­sold my articles from my place of business, and about town, also deposited them in stores on commission, and thus, after paying my mistress for my time, and rendering such support as necessary to my family, I found in the space of some six or eight years, that I had collected the sum of one thousand dollars.  During this time I had found it politic to go shabbily dressed, and to appear to be very poor, but to pay my mistress for my services promptly.  I kept my money hid, never venturing to put out a penny, nor to let any body but my wife know that I was making any.  The thousand dollars was what I supposed my mistress would ask for me, and so I determined now what I would do.

I went to my mistress and inquired what was her price for me.  She said a thousand dollars.  I then told her that I wanted to be free, and asked her if she would sell me to be made free.  She said she would; and accordingly I arranged with her, and with the master of my wife, Mr. Smith, already spoken of, for the latter to take my money[A] and buy of her my freedom, as I could not legally purchase it, and as the laws forbid emancipation except for “meritorious services.”  This done, Mr. Smith endeavored to emancipate me formally, and to get my manumission recorded; I tried also; but the court judged that