When my babe was born, they said it was premature. It weighed only four pounds; but God let it live.

When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.

When I was six years old, my mother died; and then, for the first time, I learned, by the talk around me, that I was a slave.

Cruelty is contagious in uncivilized communities.

There is something akin to freedom in having a lover who has no control over you, except that which he gains by kindness and attachment.

Notwithstanding my grandmother's long and faithful service to her owners, not one of her children escaped the auction block. These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend.

The war of my life had begun; and though one of God's most powerless creatures, I resolved never to be conquered.