precious endearments, is abolished in the case of a slave-mother
and her children. "Little children, love one another," are words seldom
heard in a slave cabin.

I really wanted to play with my brother and sisters, but they were
strangers to me, and I was full of fear that grandmother might leave
without taking me with her. Entreated to do so, however, and that, too,
by my dear grandmother, I went to the back part of the house, to play
with them and the other children. _Play_, however, I did not, but stood
with my back against the wall, witnessing the playing of the others.
At last, while standing there, one of the children, who had been in the
kitchen, ran up to me, in a sort of roguish glee, exclaiming, "Fed, Fed!
grandmammy gone! grandmammy gone!" I could not believe it; yet, fearing
the worst, I ran into the kitchen, to see for myself, and found it even
so. Grandmammy had indeed gone, and was now far away, "clean" out of
sight. I need not tell all that happened now. Almost heart-broken at the
discovery, I fell upon the ground, and{38} wept a boy's bitter tears,
refusing to be comforted. My brother and sisters came around me, and
said, "Don't cry," and gave me peaches and pears, but I flung them away,
and refused all their kindly advances. I had never been deceived before;
and I felt not only grieved at parting--as I supposed forever--with my
grandmother, but indignant that a trick had been played upon me in a
matter so serious.

It was now late in the afternoon. The day had been an exciting and
wearisome one, and I knew not how or where, but I suppose I sobbed
myself to sleep. There is a healing in the angel wing of sleep, even for
the slave-boy; and its balm was never more welcome to any wounded soul
than it was to mine, the first night I spent at the domicile of old
master. The reader may be surprised that I narrate so minutely an
incident apparently so trivial, and which must have occurred when I was
not more than seven years old; but as I wish to give a faithful history
of my experience in slavery, I cannot withhold a circumstance which, at
the time, affected me so deeply. Besides, this was, in fact, my first
introduction to the realities of slavery.

CHAPTER III. _Parentage_

MY FATHER SHROUDED IN MYSTERY--MY MOTHER--HER PERSONAL
APPEARANCE--INTERFERENCE OF SLAVERY WITH THE NATURAL AFFECTIONS OF
MOTHER AND CHILDREN--SITUATION OF MY MOTHER--HER NIGHTLY VISITS TO HER
BOY--STRIKING INCIDENT--HER DEATH--