whip me, for having thus, innocently, employed-my leisure time.

CHAPTER XIII. _The Vicissitudes of Slave Life_

DEATH OF OLD MASTER'S SON RICHARD, SPEEDILY FOLLOWED BY THAT OF OLD
MASTER--VALUATION AND DIVISION OF ALL THE PROPERTY, INCLUDING THE
SLAVES--MY PRESENCE REQUIRED AT HILLSBOROUGH TO BE APPRAISED AND
ALLOTTED TO A NEW OWNER--MY SAD PROSPECTS AND GRIEF--PARTING--THE UTTER
POWERLESSNESS OF THE SLAVES TO DECIDE THEIR OWN DESTINY--A GENERAL
DREAD OF MASTER ANDREW--HIS WICKEDNESS AND CRUELTY--MISS LUCRETIA MY NEW
OWNER--MY RETURN TO BALTIMORE--JOY UNDER THE ROOF OF MASTER HUGH--DEATH
OF MRS. LUCRETIA--MY POOR OLD GRANDMOTHER--HER SAD FATE--THE LONE COT
IN THE WOODS--MASTER THOMAS AULD'S SECOND MARRIAGE--AGAIN REMOVED FROM
MASTER HUGH'S--REASONS FOR REGRETTING THE CHANGE--A PLAN OF ESCAPE
ENTERTAINED.

I must now ask the reader to go with me a little back in point of time,
in my humble story, and to notice another circumstance that entered
into my slavery experience, and which, doubtless, has had a share in
deepening my horror of slavery, and increasing my hostility toward those
men and measures that practically uphold the slave system.

It has already been observed, that though I was, after my removal from
Col. Lloyd's plantation, in _form_ the slave of Master Hugh, I was, in
_fact_, and in _law_, the slave of my old master, Capt. Anthony. Very
well.

In a very short time after I went to Baltimore, my old master's youngest
son, Richard, died; and, in three years and six months after his death,
my old master himself died, leaving only his son, Andrew, and his
daughter, Lucretia, to share his estate. The{136} old man died while
on a visit to his daughter, in Hillsborough, where Capt. Auld and Mrs.
Lucretia now lived. The former, having given up the command of Col.
Lloyd's sloop, was now keeping a store in that town.

Cut off, thus unexpectedly, Capt. Anthony died intestate; and his
property must now be equally divided between his two children, Andrew
and Lucretia.

The valuation and the division of slaves, among contending heirs, is an
important incident in slave life. The character and tendencies of the
heirs, are generally well understood among the slaves who are to be
divided, and all have their aversions and preferences. But, neither
their aversions nor their preferences avail them anything.

On the death of old master, I was immediately sent for, to be valued
and divided with the other property