Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl Quotes
"I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away."
"My strongest wish was to purchase my children; but, though he several times offered his hard earnings for that purpose, he never succeeded."
"I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise, trusted to them for safe keeping, and liable to be demanded of them at any moment."
"There was so little difference in our ages that he seemed more like my brother than my uncle."
"The reader probably knows that no promise or writing given to a slave is legally binding; for, according to Southern laws, a slave, being property, can hold no property."
"I had also a great treasure in my maternal grandmother, who was a remarkable woman in many respects."
"Such were the unusually fortunate circumstances of my early childhood."
"I loved her; for she had been almost like a mother to me."
"It was during the Revolutionary War; and they were captured on their passage, carried back, and sold to different purchasers."
"I grieved for her, and my young mind was troubled with the thought who would now take care of me and my little brother."
"The spirit of the mothers was so crushed by the lash, that they stood by, without courage to remonstrate."
"I had a woman’s pride, and a mother’s love for my children; and I resolved that out of the darkness of this hour a brighter dawn should rise for them."
"I was resolved that I would foil my master and save my children, or I would perish in the attempt."
"I would not have taken it at the expense of leaving them in slavery."
"I was thankful that God had appointed a season of rest for the weary."
"When niggers were too old to work, they ought to be fed on grass."
"The slave girl is reared in an atmosphere of licentiousness and fear."
"My spirit was overawed by the solemnity of the scene."
"Truly, the colored race are the most cheerful and forgiving people on the face of the earth."
"I could not tell her that I had spent seven years of youth and beauty in a loathsome den."
"I was about to risk everything on the throw of a die."
"They thought my children’s being there would fetter me to the spot."
"God pity the woman who is compelled to lead such a life!"
"I was too familiar with slavery not to know that promises made to slaves, though with kind intentions, and sincere at the time, depend upon many contingencies for their fulfillment."
"I tried to be thankful for my little cell, dismal as it was."
"The atmosphere was so stifled that even mosquitoes would not condescend to buzz in it."
"How earnestly I prayed that God would not forsake me in this hour of utmost need!"
"I had learned that no condition, however wretched, does not hold some token of comfort, if we will but see it."
"Grandmother says I ought not to cry; that I am going to a good place, where I can learn to read and write, and that by and by I can write her a letter."
"I told her I couldn’t go now; but sometime I would come to her, and then she and Benny and I would live together, and have happy times."
"I asked if she would like to have me stay all night and sleep with her. 'O, yes,' she replied."
"I took her in my arms and told her I was a slave, and that was the reason she must never say she had seen me."
"She wept, and I did not check her tears. Perhaps she would never again have a chance to pour her tears into a mother’s bosom."
"I hugged her close to my throbbing heart; and tears, too sad for such young eyes to shed, flowed down her cheeks, as she gave her last kiss, and whispered in my ear, 'Mother, I will never tell.'"
"Sometimes I feared I had been very selfish not to give up all claim to her, and let her go to Illinois, to be adopted by Mrs. Sands’s sister."
"I had heard much about the oppression of the poor in Europe... but when I visited them in their little thatched cottages, I felt that the condition of even the meanest and most ignorant among them was vastly superior to the condition of the most favored slaves in America."
"She was an affectionate child, but naturally very reserved, except with those she loved, and I felt secure that my secret would be safe with her."
"But now suspicions darkened my mind. Was my child dead, or had they deceived me, and sold her?"
"If the secret memoirs of many members of Congress should be published, curious details would be unfolded."
"I did not dare to venture beyond the storeroom; so they brought him there, and locked us up together, in a place concealed from the piazza door."
"She was taken into the house, and treated as one of us, and almost as free; and we, at least, felt that you were above disgracing yourself by running away."
"I was to escape in a vessel; but I forbear to mention any further particulars."
"I found it hard to preserve my self-control when I looked round, and saw women who were nurses, as I was, and only one shade lighter in complexion, eyeing me with a defiant look, as if my presence were a contamination."
"The whole service seemed to me a mockery and a sham. But my home in Steventon was in the family of a clergyman, who was a true disciple of Jesus."
"I never saw the slightest symptom of prejudice against color. Indeed, I entirely forgot it, till the time came for us to return to America."
"It is a sad feeling to be afraid of one’s native country."
"Some of the apprentices were Americans, others American-born Irish; and it was offensive to their dignity to have a 'nigger' among them."
"I had done it for the best, and now all I could do was to pray to the heavenly Father to guide and protect him."
"I could not possibly regard myself as a piece of property."
"I knew the law would decide that I was his property, but I regarded such laws as the regulations of robbers."
"It seemed not only hard, but unjust, to pay for myself."
"I thought if I should die before she returned, she might hear my story from some one who did not understand the palliating circumstances."
"She was a person of excellent principles and a noble heart."
"What a disgrace to a city calling itself free, that inhabitants, guiltless of offence, should be condemned to live in such incessant fear."
"I am now aware that I honored the old Commonwealth beyond her deserts."
"She has gone ‘where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.’"
"The freedom I had before the money was paid was dearer to me."
"I was robbed of my victory; I was obliged to resign my crown, to rid myself of a tyrant."
"God gave me that freedom; but man put God’s image in the scales with the paltry sum of three hundred dollars."