I had done nothing “meritorious,” and so I remained, nominally only, the slave of Mr. Smith for a year; when, feeling unsafe in that relation, I accompanied him to New York whither he was going to purchase goods, and was there regularly and formally made a freeman, and there my manumission was recorded.  I returned to my family in Raleigh and endeavored to do by them as a freeman should.  I had known what it was to be a slave, and I knew what it was to be free.

[Footnote A:  Legally, my money belonged to my mistress; and she could have taken it and refused to grant me my freedom.  But she was a very kind woman for a slave owner; and she would under the circumstances, scorn to do such a thing.  I have known of slaves, however, served in this way.]

But I am going too rapidly over my story.  When the money was paid to my mistress and the conveyance fairly made to Mr. Smith, I felt that I was free.  And a queer and a joyous feeling it is to one who has been a slave.  I cannot describe it, only it seemed as though I was in heaven.  I used to lie awake whole nights thinking of it.  And oh, the strange thoughts that passed through my soul, like so many rivers of light; deep and rich were their waves as they rolled;—­these were more to me than sleep, more than soft slumber after long months of watching over the decaying, fading frame of a friend, and the loved one laid to rest in the dust.  But I cannot describe my feelings to those who have never been slaves; then why should I attempt it?  He who has passed from spiritual death to life, and received the witness within his soul that his sins are forgiven, may possibly form some distant idea, like the ray of the setting sun from the far off mountain top, of the emotions of an emancipated slave.  That opens heaven.  To break the bonds of slavery, opens up at once both earth and heaven.  Neither can be truly seen by us while we are slaves.

And now will the reader take with me a brief review of the road I had trodden.  I cannot here dwell upon its dark shades, though some of these were black as the pencillings of midnight, but upon the light that had followed my path from my infancy up, and had at length conducted me quite out of the deep abyss of bondage.  There is a hymn opening with the following stanza, which very much expresses my feelings: 

    “When all thy mercies, Oh my God,
      My rising soul surveys,
    Transported with the view, I’m lost
      In wonder, love, and praise.”

I had endured what a freeman would indeed call hard fare; but my lot, on the whole, had been a favored one for a slave.  It is known that there is a wide difference in the situations of what are termed house servants, and plantation hands.  I, though sometimes employed upon the plantation, belonged to the former, which is the favored class.  My master, too, was esteemed a kind and humane man; and altogether I fared quite differently from many poor fellows whom