mbered, that the very parties who censured the
cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton, would have condemned and promptly punished any
attempt to interfere with Mrs. Hamilton's _right_ to cut and slash
her slaves to pieces. There must be no force between the slave and the
slaveholder, to restrain the power of the one, and protect the weakness
of the other; and the cruelty of Mrs. Hamilton is as justly chargeable
to the upholders of the slave system, as drunkenness is chargeable
on those who, by precept and example, or by indifference, uphold the
drinking system.

CHAPTER XI. _"A Change Came O'er the Spirit of My Dream"_

HOW I LEARNED TO READ--MY MISTRESS--HER SLAVEHOLDING DUTIES--THEIR
DEPLORABLE EFFECTS UPON HER ORIGINALLY NOBLE NATURE--THE CONFLICT IN HER
MIND--HER FINAL OPPOSITION TO MY LEARNING TO READ--TOO LATE--SHE HAD
GIVEN ME THE INCH, I WAS RESOLVED TO TAKE THE ELL--HOW I PURSUED
MY EDUCATION--MY TUTORS--HOW I COMPENSATED THEM--WHAT PROGRESS I
MADE--SLAVERY--WHAT I HEARD SAID ABOUT IT--THIRTEEN YEARS OLD--THE
_Columbian Orator_--A RICH SCENE--A DIALOGUE--SPEECHES OF CHATHAM,
SHERIDAN, PITT AND FOX--KNOWLEDGE EVER INCREASING--MY EYES
OPENED--LIBERTY--HOW I PINED FOR IT--MY SADNESS--THE DISSATISFACTION OF
MY POOR MISTRESS--MY HATRED OF SLAVERY--ONE UPAS TREE OVERSHADOWED US
BOTH.

I lived in the family of Master Hugh, at Baltimore, seven years, during
which time--as the almanac makers say of the weather--my condition
was variable. The most interesting feature of my history here, was my
learning to read and write, under somewhat marked disadvantages. In
attaining this knowledge, I was compelled to resort to indirections by
no means congenial to my nature, and which were really humiliating to
me. My mistress--who, as the reader has already seen, had begun to teach
me was suddenly checked in her benevolent design, by the strong advice
of her husband. In faithful compliance with this advice, the good lady
had not only ceased to instruct me, herself, but had set her face as a
flint against my learning to read by any means. It is due, however,
to my mistress to say, that she did not adopt this course in all its
stringency at the first. She either thought it unnecessary, or she
lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in{119} mental
darkness. It was, at least, necessary for her to have some training,
and some hardening, in the exercise of the slaveholder's prerogative,
to make her equal to forgetting my human n