untry. There was his native spot where his had
lived, there the home of his infancy and childhood, there the place
where he had inhaled his earliest breath--and to tear him from these,
seemed like breaking the very strings of his heart.

[Illustration]

After a melancholy passage, during which the African was forced to wear
double the irons to receive double the number of lashes, that any of
his companions received, on account of his refractory spirit, he was at
length landed and sold to a planter in the place where he now resides.
There is nothing new, nothing novel or interesting, that ever takes
place in the life of a slave--describe one day, and you write the
history of a slave. The sun, indeed, continues to roll over him; but it
sheds upon him no new joys, no new prospects, no new hopes. So it was
with the subject of this narrative. His master was naturally a man of a
very humane disposition; but his overseers were often little else than
compounds of vice and cruelty. In this situation the negro lost all his
natural independence and bravery. He often attempted to run away, but
was as often taken and punished. Having no cultivated mind to which he
could look for consolation--knowing of no change that was ever to take
place in his situation,--he settled down in gloominess. Often would he
send a silent sigh for the home of his youth; but his path shewed but
few marks of happiness, and few rays of hope for futurity were drawn by
fancy's hand. Sunk in despondency and vice, he was little above the
brutes around him.

In this situation he was accidentally met by the good minister of the
parish, who addressed him as a rational and immortal being, and pressed
upon him the first principles of religion. This was a new subject; for
he had never before looked beyond the narrow bounds before him, nor had
he ever dreamed of a world beyond this. After a long conversation on
this subject, the minister made him promise that he would now "_attend
to his soul_."

The clergyman could not, for many months after this, obtain an interview
with his new pupil, who most carefully shunned him. But though afraid to
meet his minister, he still felt an arrow of conviction in his heart.
Wherever he went, whether asleep or awake, to use his own words, his
promise, "me take care of soul, stick close to him," He now began in
earnest to seek "the one thing needful". By the kindness of his master
he learned to read his Testament, and to inquire mo