t or sold, but my mistress
wanted to keep me to carry on the place for her support. So I was kept
for seven or eight years after his death. It was understood between my
mistress, and her children, and her friends, who all met after master
died, that I was to take care of mistress, and after mistress died I
should not serve anybody else. I done my best to keep my mistress from
suffering. After a few years they all became dissatisfied, and moved to
Missouri. They scattered, and took up government land. Without means
they lived as poor people commonly live, on small farms in the woods. I
still lived with my mistress. Some of the heirs got dissatisfied, and
sued for their rights or a settlement; then I was sold with my child, a
boy."

Thus Aunt Hannah reviewed her slave-life, showing that she had been in
the hands of six different owners, and had seen great tribulation under
each of them, except the last; that she had never known a mother's or a
father's care; that Slavery had given her one child, but no husband as a
protector or a father. The half of what she passed through in the way of
suffering has scarcely been hinted at in this sketch. Fifty-seven years
were passed in bondage before she reached Philadelphia. Under the good
Providence through which she came in possession of her freedom, she
found a kind home with a family of Abolitionists, (Mrs. Gillingham's),
whose hearts had been in deep sympathy with the slave for many years. In
this situation Aunt Hannah remained several years, honest, faithful, and
obliging, taking care of her earnings, which were put out at interest
for her by her friends. Her mind was deeply imbued with religious
feeling, and an unshaken confidence in God as her only trust; she
connected herself with the A.M.E. Bethel Church, of Philadelphia, where
she has walked, blameless and exemplary up to this day. Probably there
is not a member in that large congregation whose simple faith and whose
walk and conversation are more commendable than Aunt Hannah's. Although
she has passed through so many hardships she is a woman of good judgment
and more than average intellect; enjoys good health, vigor, and peace of
mind in her old days, with a small income just sufficient to meet her
humble wants without having to live at service. After living in
Philadelphia for several years, she was married to a man of about her
own age, possessing all her good qualities; had served a life-time in a
highly respectable Qua