me six cents, to encourage me.  It had the opposite effect.  I regarded it as a sort of admission of my right to the whole.  The fact that he gave me any part of my wages was proof, to my mind, that he believed me entitled to the whole of them.  I always felt worse for having received any thing; for I feared that the giving me a few cents would ease his conscience, and make him feel himself to be a pretty honorable sort of robber.  My discontent grew upon me.  I was ever on the look-out for means of escape; and, finding no direct means, I determined to try to hire my time, with a view of getting money with which to make my escape.  In the spring of 1838, when Master Thomas came to Baltimore to purchase his spring goods, I got an opportunity, and applied to him to allow me to hire my time.  He unhesitatingly refused my request, and told me this was another stratagem by which to escape.  He told me I could go nowhere but that he could get me; and that, in the event of my running away, he should spare no pains in his efforts to catch me.  He exhorted me to content myself, and be obedient.  He told me, if I would be happy, I must lay out no plans for the future.  He said, if I behaved myself properly, he would take care of me.  Indeed, he advised me to complete thoughtlessness of the future, and taught me to depend solely upon him for happiness.  He seemed to see fully the pressing necessity of setting aside my intellectual nature, in order to contentment in slavery.  But in spite of him, and even in spite of myself, I continued to think, and to think about the injustice of my enslavement, and the means of escape.

About two months after this, I applied to Master Hugh for the privilege of hiring my time.  He was not acquainted with the fact that I had applied to Master Thomas, and had been refused.  He too, at first, seemed disposed to refuse; but, after some reflection, he granted me the privilege, and proposed the following terms:  I was to be allowed all my time, make all contracts with those for whom I worked, and find my own employment; and, in return for this liberty, I was to pay him three dollars at the end of each week; find myself in calking tools, and in board and clothing.  My board was two dollars and a half per week.  This, with the wear and tear of clothing and calking tools, made my regular expenses about six dollars per week.  This amount I was compelled to make up, or relinquish the privilege of hiring my time.  Rain or shine, work or no work, at the end of each week the money must be forthcoming, or I must give up my privilege.  This arrangement, it will be perceived, was decidedly in my master’s favor.  It relieved him of all need of looking after me.  His money was sure.  He received all the benefits of slaveholding without its evils; while I endured all the evils of a slave, and suffered all the care and anxiety of a freeman.  I found it a hard bargain.  But, hard as it was, I thought it better than the old mode of getting along.