no
Bible--no intelligent leader--but a conscience, prompted by our own
reason, constrained us to worship God the Creator of all things.
When I returned home from meeting I told the other slaves what a good
time we had at our meeting, and requested them to go with me to
meeting there on the next Sabbath. As no slave was allowed to go from
the plantation on a visit without a written pass from his master, on
the next Sabbath several of us went to the Deacon, to get permission
to attend that prayer meeting; but he refused to let any go. I thought
I would slip off and attend the meeting and get back before he would
miss me, and would not know that I had been to the meeting.
When I returned home from the meeting as I approached the house I saw
Malinda, standing out at the fence looking in the direction in which I
was expected to return. She hailed my approach, not with joy, but with
grief. She was weeping under great distress of mind, but it was hard
for me to extort from her the reason why she wept. She finally
informed me that her master had found out that I had violated his law,
and I should suffer the penalty, which was five hundred lashes, on my
naked back.
I asked her how he knew that I had gone?
She said I had not long been gone before he called for me and I was
not to be found. He then sent the overseer on horseback to the place
where we were to meet to see if I was there. But when the overseer got
to the place, the meeting was over and I had gone back home, but had
gone a nearer route through the woods and the overseer happened not to
meet me. He heard that I had been there and hurried back home before
me and told the Deacon, who ordered him to take me on the next
morning, strip off my clothes, drive down four stakes in the ground
and fasten my limbs to them; then strike me five hundred lashes for
going to the prayer meeting. This was what distressed my poor
companion. She thought it was more than I could bear, and that it
would be the death of me. I concluded then to run away--but she
thought they would catch me with the blood hounds by their taking my
track. But to avoid them I thought I would ride off on one of the
Deacon's mules. She thought if I did, they would sell me.
"No matter, I will try it," said I, "let the consequences be what they
may. The matter can be no worse than it now is." So I tackled up the
Deacon's best mule with his saddle, &c., and started that night and
went off eight or ten miles
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