Thomas.

"If he has got religion," thought I, "he will emancipate his slaves; and
if he should not do so much as this, he will, at any rate, behave toward
us more kindly, and feed us more generously than he has heretofore
done." Appealing to my own religious experience, and judging my master
by what was true in my own case, I could not regard him as soundly
converted, unless some such good results followed his profession of
religion.

But in my expectations I was doubly disappointed; Master Thomas was
_Master Thomas_ still. The fruits of his righteousness{152} were to
show themselves in no such way as I had anticipated. His conversion
was not to change his relation toward men--at any rate not toward BLACK
men--but toward God. My faith, I confess, was not great. There was
something in his appearance that, in my mind, cast a doubt over his
conversion. Standing where I did, I could see his every movement. I
watched narrowly while he remained in the little pen; and although I saw
that his face was extremely red, and his hair disheveled, and though
I heard him groan, and saw a stray tear halting on his cheek, as if
inquiring "which way shall I go?"--I could not wholly confide in the
genuineness of his conversion. The hesitating behavior of that tear-drop
and its loneliness, distressed me, and cast a doubt upon the whole
transaction, of which it was a part. But people said, _"Capt. Auld had
come through,"_ and it was for me to hope for the best. I was bound
to do this, in charity, for I, too, was religious, and had been in the
church full three years, although now I was not more than sixteen years
old. Slaveholders may, sometimes, have confidence in the piety of some
of their slaves; but the slaves seldom have confidence in the piety of
their masters. _"He cant go to heaven with our blood in his skirts_,"
is a settled point in the creed of every slave; rising superior to all
teaching to the contrary, and standing forever as a fixed fact. The
highest evidence the slaveholder can give the slave of his acceptance
with God, is the emancipation of his slaves. This is proof that he is
willing to give up all to God, and for the sake of God. Not to do this,
was, in my estimation, and in the opinion of all the slaves, an evidence
of half-heartedness, and wholly inconsistent with the idea of genuine
conversion. I had read, also, somewhere in the Methodist Discipline, the
following question and answer:

"_Question_. What shall be do