gdom. But I proceed with the argument.

It was necessary that right to steal from _others_ should be
established; and this could only rest upon a wider range of
generalization than that which supposed the right to steal from my
master.

It was sometime before I arrived at this clear right. The reader will
get some idea of my train of reasoning, by a brief statement of the
case. "I am," thought I, "not only the slave of Thomas, but I am the
slave of society at large. Society at large has bound itself, in form
and in fact, to assist Master Thomas in robbing me of my rightful
liberty, and of the just reward of my labor; therefore, whatever
rights I have against Master Thomas, I have, equally, against those
confederated with him in robbing me of liberty. As society has marked
me out as privileged plunder, on the principle of self-preservation I
am justified in plundering in turn. Since each slave belongs to all; all
must, therefore, belong to each."

I shall here make a profession of faith which may shock some, offend
others, and be dissented from by all. It is this: Within the bounds of
his just earnings, I hold that the slave is fully justified in helping
himself to the _gold and silver, and the best apparel of his master, or
that of any other slaveholder; and that such taking is not stealing in
any just sense of that word_.

The morality of _free_ society can have no application to _slave_
society. Slaveholders have made it almost impossible for the slave to
commit any crime, known either to the laws of God or to the laws of man.
If he steals, he takes his own; if he kills his master,{149} he
imitates only the heroes of the revolution. Slaveholders I hold to be
individually and collectively responsible for all the evils which grow
out of the horrid relation, and I believe they will be so held at the
judgment, in the sight of a just God. Make a man a slave, and you rob
him of moral responsibility. Freedom of choice is the essence of all
accountability. But my kind readers are, probably, less concerned about
my opinions, than about that which more nearly touches my personal
experience; albeit, my opinions have, in some sort, been formed by that
experience.

Bad as slaveholders are, I have seldom met with one so entirely
destitute of every element of character capable of inspiring respect, as
was my present master, Capt. Thomas Auld.

When I lived with him, I thought him incapable of a noble action. The
leading trai