being separated from the dearest connections,
drive many of them to desperation, and they abscond. They hide
themselves in the woods, where they remain for months, and, in some
cases, for years. When caught, they are flogged with extreme
severity, their backs are pickled, and the flogging repeated as before
described: after months of this torture, the back is allowed to heal,
and the slave is sold away. Especially is this done when the slave has
attempted to reach a free state.

In violent thunder-storms, when the whites have got between
feather-beds to be safe from the lightning, I have often seen negroes,
the aged as well as others, go out, and, lifting up their hands, thank
God that judgment was coming at last. So cruelly are many of them
used, that judgment, they think, would be a happy release from their
horrible slavery.

The proprietors, though they live in luxury, generally die in debt:
their negroes are so hardly treated that no profit is made by their
labor. Many of them are great gamblers. At the death of a proprietor,
it commonly happens that his colored people are sold towards paying
his debts. So it must and will be with the masters while slavery
continues: when freedom is established, I believe they will begin to
prosper greatly.

Before I close this Narrative, I ought to express my grateful thanks
to the many friends in the Northern States, who have encouraged and
assisted me: I shall never forget to speak of their kindness, and to
pray for their prosperity. I am delighted in saying, that not only to
myself, but to very many other colored persons, they have lent a
benevolent and helping hand. Last year, gentlemen whom I know bought
no less than ten families from slavery; and this year they are
pursuing the same good work. But for these numerous and heavy claims
on their means and their kindness, I should have had no need to appeal
to the generosity of the British public; they would gladly have
helped me to redeem all my children and relations.

When I first went to the Northern States,--which is about ten years
ago,--although I was free, as to the law, I was made to feel severely
the difference between persons of different colors. No black man was
admitted to the same seats in churches with the whites, nor to the
inside of public conveyances, nor into street coaches or cabs: we had
to be content with the decks of steamboats in all weathers, night and
day, not even our wives or children being allowe