ly ties to bind relations together, not even the nearest,
and this aggravates their distress when they are sold from each other.
I have little hope of finding my four children again.

I have lived in Boston ever since I bought my freedom, except during
the last year, which I have spent at Portland, in the state of Maine.

I have yet said nothing of my father. He was often sold through the
failure of his successive owners. When I was a little boy, he was sold
away from us to a distance: he was then so far off that he could not
come to see us oftener than once a year. After that, he was sold to go
still farther away, and then he could not come at all. I do not know
what has become of him.

When my mother became old, she was sent to live in a little lonely
log-hut in the woods. Aged and worn-out slaves, whether men or women,
are commonly so treated. No care is taken of them, except, perhaps,
that a little ground is cleared about the hut, on which the old slave,
if able, may raise a little corn. As far as the owner is concerned,
they live or die, as it happens: it is just the same thing as turning
out an old horse. Their children, or other near relations, if living
in the neighborhood, take it by turns to go at night with a supply
saved out of their own scanty allowance of food, as well as to cut
wood and fetch water for them: this is done entirely through the good
feelings of the slaves, and not through the masters' taking care that
it is done. On these night-visits, the aged inmate of the hut is often
found crying on account of sufferings from disease or extreme
weakness, or from want of food or water in the course of the day: many
a time, when I have drawn near to my mother's hut, I have heard her
grieving and crying on these accounts: she was old and blind too, and
so unable to help herself. She was not treated worse than others: it
is the general practice. Some few good masters do not treat their old
slaves so: they employ them in doing light jobs about the house and
garden.

My eldest sister is in Elizabeth City. She has five children, who, of
course, are slaves. Her master is willing to sell her for $100: she is
growing old. One of her children, a young man, cannot be bought under
$900.

My sister Tamar, who belonged to the same master with myself, had
children very fast. Her husband had hard owners, and lived at a
distance. When a woman who has many children belongs to an owner who
is under age, as ours was, i