, and nothing was publicly done
which looked like the application of the principle of justice to the
man whom _chance_, only, saved from being an actual murderer. One of
the commonest sayings to which my ears early became accustomed, on Col.
Lloyd's plantation and elsewhere in Maryland, was, that it was _"worth
but half a cent to kill a nigger, and a half a cent to bury him;"_ and
the facts of my experience go far to justify the practical truth of this
strange proverb. Laws for the protection of the lives of the slaves,
are, as they must needs be, utterly incapable of being enforced, where
the very parties who are nominally protected, are not permitted to give
evidence, in courts of law, against the only class of persons from whom
abuse, outrage and murder might be reasonably apprehended. While I heard
of numerous murders committed by slaveholders on the Eastern Shores of
Maryland, I never knew a solitary instance in which a slaveholder was
either hung or imprisoned for having murdered a slave. The usual pretext
for killing a slave is, that the slave has offered resistance. Should
a slave, when assaulted, but raise his hand in self defense, the white
assaulting{100} party is fully justified by southern, or Maryland,
public opinion, in shooting the slave down. Sometimes this is done,
simply because it is alleged that the slave has been saucy. But here I
leave this phase of the society of my early childhood, and will relieve
the kind reader of these heart-sickening details.

CHAPTER IX. _Personal Treatment_

MISS LUCRETIA--HER KINDNESS--HOW IT WAS MANIFESTED--"IKE"--A BATTLE
WITH HIM--THE CONSEQUENCES THEREOF--MISS LUCRETIA'S BALSAM--BREAD--HOW
I OBTAINED IT--BEAMS OF SUNLIGHT AMIDST THE GENERAL DARKNESS--SUFFERING
FROM COLD--HOW WE TOOK OUR MEALS--ORDERS TO PREPARE
FOR BALTIMORE--OVERJOYED AT THE THOUGHT OF QUITTING THE
PLANTATION--EXTRAORDINARY CLEANSING--COUSIN TOM'S VERSION OF
BALTIMORE--ARRIVAL THERE--KIND RECEPTION GIVEN ME BY MRS. SOPHIA
AULD--LITTLE TOMMY--MY NEW POSITION--MY NEW DUTIES--A TURNING POINT IN
MY HISTORY.

I have nothing cruel or shocking to relate of my own personal
experience, while I remained on Col. Lloyd's plantation, at the home of
my old master. An occasional cuff from Aunt Katy, and a regular whipping
from old master, such as any heedless and mischievous boy might get from
his father, is all that I can mention of this sort. I was not old enough
to work in the field, and, there being