with me, and I accomplished nothing but gained her
displeasure.

Such are the superstitious notions of the great masses of southern
slaves. It is given to them by tradition, and can never be erased,
while the doors of education are bolted and barred against them. But
there is a prohibition by law, of mental and religious instruction.
The state of Georgia, by an act of 1770, declared "that it shall not
be lawful for any number of free negroes, molattoes or mestinos, or
even slaves in company with white persons, to meet together for the
purpose of mental instruction, either before the rising of the sun or
after the going down of the same." 2d Brevard's Digest, 254-5. Similar
laws exist in most of the slave States, and patrols are sent out after
night and on the Sabbath day to enforce them. They go through their
respective towns to prevent slaves from meeting for religious worship
or mental instruction.

This is the regulation and law of American Slavery, as sanctioned by
the Government of the United States, and without which it could not
exist. And almost the whole moral, political, and religious power of
the nation are in favor of slavery and aggression, and against liberty
and justice. I only judge by their actions, which speak louder than
words. Slaveholders are put into the highest offices in the gift of
the people in both Church and State, thereby making slaveholding
popular and reputable.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Police peculiar to the South.

CHAPTER III.

_My Courtship and Marriage.--Change of owner.--My first born.--Its
sufferings.--My wife abused.--My own anguish._

The circumstances of my courtship and marriage, I consider to be among
the most remarkable events of my life while a slave. To think that
after I had determined to carry out the great idea which is so
universally and practically acknowledged among all the civilized
nations of the earth, that I would be free or die, I suffered myself
to be turned aside by the fascinating charms of a female, who
gradually won my attention from an object so high as that of liberty;
and an object which I held paramount to all others.

But when I had arrived at the age of eighteen, which was in the year
of 1853, it was my lot to be introduced to the favor of a mulatto
slave girl named Malinda, who lived in Oldham County, Kentucky, about
four miles from the residence of my owner. Malinda was a medium sized
girl, graceful in her walk, of an extraordinary make,