sufficient to have
arrested one of the murderers. Master Hugh, for once, was compelled to
say this state of things was too bad. Of course, it was impossible to
get any white man to volunteer his testimony in my behalf, and against
the white young men. Even those who may have sympathized with me were
not prepared to do this. It required a degree of courage unknown to them
to do so; for just at that time, the slightest manifestation of humanity
toward a colored person was denounced as abolitionism, and that name
subjected its bearer to frightful liabilities. The watchwords of
the bloody-minded in that region, and in those days, were, "Damn the
abolitionists!" and "Damn the niggers!" There was nothing done, and
probably nothing would have been done if I had been killed. Such
was, and such remains, the state of things in the Christian city of
Baltimore.

Master Hugh, finding he could get no redress, refused to let me go back
again to Mr. Gardner. He kept me himself, and his wife dressed my wound
till I was again restored to health. He then took me into the ship-yard
of which he was foreman, in the employment of Mr. Walter Price. There I
was immediately set to calking, and very soon learned the art of using
my mallet and irons. In the course of one year from the time I left Mr.
Gardner's, I was able to command the highest wages given to the most
experienced calkers. I was now of some importance to my master. I was
bringing him from six to seven dollars per week. I sometimes brought him
nine dollars per week: my wages were a dollar and a half a day. After
learning how to calk, I sought my own employment, made my own contracts,
and collected the money which I earned. My pathway became much more
smooth than before; my condition was now much more comfortable. When I
could get no calking to do, I did nothing. During these leisure times,
those old notions about freedom would steal over me again. When in
Mr. Gardner's employment, I was kept in such a perpetual whirl of
excitement, I could think of nothing, scarcely, but my life; and in
thinking of my life, I almost forgot my liberty. I have observed this
in my experience of slavery,--that whenever my condition was improved,
instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire
to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I
have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a
thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and