L LEWIS

XXVIII. DESPERATION OF A FUGITIVE SLAVE

XXIX. A NARROW ESCAPE FROM MY ENEMIES

XXX. DEATH OF B. PAUL AND RETURN OF HIS BROTHER

XXXI. MY FAMILY RETURN TO ROCHESTER

XXXII. THE LAND AGENT AND THE SQUATTER

XXXIII. CHARACTER AND DEATH OF ISRAEL LEWIS

XXXIV. MY RETURN TO ROCHESTER

XXXV. BISHOP BROWN--DEATH OF MY DAUGHTER

XXXVI. CELEBRATION OF THE FIRST OF AUGUST

XXXVII. CONCLUSION

CORRESPONDENCE

PREFACE.

The author does not think that any apology is necessary for this issue of
his Life and History. He believes that American Slavery is now the great
question before the American People: that it is not merely a political
question, coming up before the country as the grand element in the making
of a President, and then to be laid aside for four years; but that its
moral bearings are of such a nature that the Patriot, the Philanthropist,
and all good men agree that it is an evil of so much magnitude, that
longer to permit it, is to wink at _sin_, and to incur the righteous
judgments of God. The late outrages and aggressions of the slave power to
possess itself of new soil, and extend the influence of the hateful and
God-provoking "Institution," is a practical commentary upon its benefits
and the moral qualities of those who seek to sustain and extend it. The
author is therefore the more willing--nay, anxious, to lay alongside of
such arguments the history of his own life and experiences _as a slave_,
that those who read may know what are some of the characteristics of
that highly favored institution, which is sought to be preserved and
perpetuated. "Facts are stubborn things,"--and this is the reason why
all systems, religious, moral, or social, which are founded in injustice,
and supported by fraud and robbery, suffer so much by faithful exposition.

The author has endeavored to present a true statement of the practical
workings of the system of Slavery, as he has seen and _felt it himself._
He has intended "nothing to extenuate, nor aught set down in malice;"
indeed, so far from believing that he has misrepresented Slavery as an
institution, he does not feel that he has the power to give anything like
a true picture of it in all its deformity and wickedness; especially
_that_ Slavery which is an institution among an enlightened and Christian
people, who profess to believe that all men are born _free_ and _equal_,
and who have certain inalienable _rights_, among which are _life,
lib