ily in the great house had a small loaf
every morning; thus leaving us, in the kitchen, with not quite a half a
peck per week, apiece. This allowance was less than half the allowance
of food on Lloyd's plantation. It was not enough to subsist upon; and
we were, therefore, reduced to the wretched necessity of living at the
expense of our neighbors. We were compelled either to beg, or to steal,
and we did both. I frankly confess, that while I hated everything like
stealing, _as such_, I nevertheless did not hesitate to take food, when
I was hungry, wherever I could find it. Nor was this practice the mere
result of an unreasoning instinct; it was, in my case, the result of a
clear apprehension of the claims of morality. I weighed and considered
the matter closely, before I ventured to satisfy my hunger by such
means. Considering that my labor and person were the property of Master
Thomas, and that I was by him deprived of the necessaries of life
necessaries obtained by my own labor--it was easy to deduce the right to
supply myself with what was my own. It was simply appropriating what was
my own to the use of my master, since the health and strength derived
from such food were exerted in _his_ service. To be sure, this was
stealing, according to the law and gospel I heard from St. Michael's
pulpit; but I had already begun to attach less importance to what
dropped from that quarter, on that point, while, as yet, I retained
my reverence for religion. It was not always convenient to steal from
master, and the same reason why I might, innocently, steal from him,
did not seem to justify me in stealing from others. In the case of my
master, it was only a question of _removal_--the taking his meat out of
one tub, and putting it into another; the ownership of the meat was not
affected by the transaction. At first, he owned it in the _tub_, and
last, he owned it in _me_. His meat house was not always open. There was
a strict watch kept on that{148} point, and the key was on a large bunch
in Rowena's pocket. A great many times have we, poor creatures, been
severely pinched with hunger, when meat and bread have been moulding
under the lock, while the key was in the pocket of our mistress. This
had been so when she _knew_ we were nearly half starved; and yet, that
mistress, with saintly air, would kneel with her husband, and pray each
morning that a merciful God would bless them in basket and in store, and
save them, at last, in his kin