hundred dollars
to one hundred and twenty dollars per year. This was a privilege which
comparatively few slaves at the South enjoy; and in this I felt truly
blessed.

[Footnote A: It is contrary to the laws of the State for a slave to have
command of his own time in this way, but in Raleigh it is sometimes winked
at. I knew one slave-man who was _doing well for himself_, taken up by the
public authorities and hired out for the public good, three times in
succession for this offence. The time of hiring in such a case is one
year. The master is subject to a fine. But generally, as I have said, if
the slave is orderly and appears to be _making nothing_, neither he nor
the master is interfered with.]

I commenced the manufacture of pipes and tobacco on an enlarged scale. I
opened a regular place of business, labelled my tobacco in a conspicuous
manner with the names of "_Edward and Lunsford Lane_," and of some of the
persons who sold it for me,--established agencies for the sale in various
parts of the State, one at Fayetteville, one at Salisbury, one at Chapel
Hill, and so on,--sold my articles from my place of business, and about
town, also deposited them in stores on commission, and thus, after paying
my mistress for my time, and rendering such support as necessary to my
family, I found in the space of some six or eight years, that I had
collected the sum of one thousand dollars. During this time I had found it
politic to go shabbily dressed, and to appear to be very poor, but to pay
my mistress for my services promptly. I kept my money hid, never venturing
to put out a penny, nor to let any body but my wife know that I was making
any. The thousand dollars was what I supposed my mistress would ask for
me, and so I determined now what I would do.

I went to my mistress and inquired what was her price for me. She said a
thousand dollars. I then told her that I wanted to be free, and asked her
if she would sell me to be made free. She said she would; and accordingly
I arranged with her, and with the master of my wife, Mr. Smith, already
spoken of, for the latter to take my money[A] and buy of her my freedom,
as I could not legally purchase it, and as the laws forbid emancipation
except for "meritorious services." This done, Mr. Smith endeavored to
emancipate me formally, and to get my manumission recorded; I tried also;
but the court judged that I had done nothing "meritorious," and so I
remained, nominally only, the slav