ore Mental Improvement
Society."_ To this society, notwithstanding it was intended that only
free persons should attach themselves, I was admitted, and was, several
times, assigned a prominent part in its debates. I owe much to the
society of these young men.

The reader already knows enough of the _ill_ effects of good treatment
on a slave, to anticipate what was now the case in my improved
condition. It was not long before I began to show signs of disquiet with
slavery, and to look around for means to get out of that condition by
the shortest route. I was living among _free_{247} _men;_ and was, in
all respects, equal to them by nature and by attainments. _Why should
I be a slave?_ There was _no_ reason why I should be the thrall of any
man.

Besides, I was now getting--as I have said--a dollar and fifty cents per
day. I contracted for it, worked for it, earned it, collected it; it
was paid to me, and it was _rightfully_ my own; and yet, upon every
returning Saturday night, this money--my own hard earnings, every cent
of it--was demanded of me, and taken from me by Master Hugh. He did not
earn it; he had no hand in earning it; why, then, should he have it? I
owed him nothing. He had given me no schooling, and I had received from
him only my food and raiment; and for these, my services were supposed
to pay, from the first. The right to take my earnings, was the right of
the robber. He had the power to compel me to give him the fruits of my
labor, and this power was his only right in the case. I became more and
more dissatisfied with this state of things; and, in so becoming, I only
gave proof of the same human nature which every reader of this chapter
in my life--slaveholder, or nonslaveholder--is conscious of possessing.

To make a contented slave, you must make a thoughtless one. It is
necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as
possible, to annihilate his power of reason. He must be able to detect
no inconsistencies in slavery. The man that takes his earnings, must be
able to convince him that he has a perfect right to do so. It must
not depend upon mere force; the slave must know no Higher Law than his
master's will. The whole relationship must not only demonstrate, to
his mind, its necessity, but its absolute rightfulness. If there be one
crevice through which a single drop can fall, it will certainly rust off
the slave's chain.

CHAPTER XXI. _My Escape from Slavery_

CLOSING INCI