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

Always it gave me a pang that my children had no lawful claim to a name.

I can testify, from my own experience and observation, that slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the blacks. It makes the white fathers cruel and sensual; the sons violent and licentious; it contaminates the daughters, and makes the wives wretched. And as for the colored race, it needs an abler pen than mine to describe the extremity of their sufferings, the depth of their degradation.

There must be sophistry in all this; but the condition of a slave confuses all principles of morality, and, in fact, renders the practice of them impossible.

My master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will. There is might in each.

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

Southern women often marry a man knowing that he is the father of many little slaves. They do not trouble themselves about it.