ion
as a slave.

When I was about thirteen years old, and had succeeded in learning
to read, every increase of knowledge, especially respecting the
FREE STATES, added something to the almost intolerable burden of the
thought--I AM A SLAVE FOR LIFE. To my bondage I saw no end. It was
a terrible reality, and I shall never be able to tell how sadly that
thought chafed my young spirit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, about
this time in my life, I had made enough money to buy what was then a
very popular school book, viz: the _Columbian Orator_. I bought this
addition to my library, of Mr. Knight, on Thames street, Fell's Point,
Baltimore, and paid him fifty cents for it. I was first led to buy this
book, by hearing some little boys say they were going to learn some
little pieces out of it for the Exhibition. This volume was, indeed, a
rich treasure, and every opportunity afforded me, for{123} a time, was
spent in diligently perusing it. Among much other interesting matter,
that which I had perused and reperused with unflagging satisfaction,
was a short dialogue between a master and his slave. The slave is
represented as having been recaptured, in a second attempt to run away;
and the master opens the dialogue with an upbraiding speech, charging
the slave with ingratitude, and demanding to know what he has to say
in his own defense. Thus upbraided, and thus called upon to reply, the
slave rejoins, that he knows how little anything that he can say will
avail, seeing that he is completely in the hands of his owner; and with
noble resolution, calmly says, "I submit to my fate." Touched by the
slave's answer, the master insists upon his further speaking, and
recapitulates the many acts of kindness which he has performed toward
the slave, and tells him he is permitted to speak for himself. Thus
invited to the debate, the quondam slave made a spirited defense of
himself, and thereafter the whole argument, for and against slavery, was
brought out. The master was vanquished at every turn in the argument;
and seeing himself to be thus vanquished, he generously and meekly
emancipates the slave, with his best wishes for his prosperity. It is
scarcely neccessary(sic) to say, that a dialogue, with such an origin,
and such an ending--read when the fact of my being a slave was a
constant burden of grief--powerfully affected me; and I could not help
feeling that the day might come, when the well-directed answers made by
the slave to the mas