I was ordered to go for flowers, that my mistress's house might be decorated for an evening party. I spent the day gathering flowers and weaving them into festoons, while the dead body of my father was lying within a mile of me. What cared my owners for that? he was merely a piece of property. Moreover, they thought he had spoiled his children, by teaching them to feel that they were human beings. This was blasphemous doctrine for a slave to teach; presumptuous in him, and dangerous to the masters.

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

But I now entered on my fifteenth year - a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl. My master began to whisper foul words in my ear. Young as I was, I could not remain ignorant of their import

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

Every where the years bring to all enough of sin and sorrow; but in slavery the very dawn of life is darkened by these shadows

For years, my master had done his utmost to pollute my mind with foul images, and to destroy the pure principles inculcated by my grandmother, and the good mistress of my childhood

The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.