I can speak of slavery only so far as it came under my own observation - only so far as I have known and experienced it in my own person.

Is everything right because the law allows it?

Really, it was difficult to determine which I had most reason to fear—dogs, alligators or men!

Life is dear to every living thing; the worm that crawls upon the ground will struggle for it.

My back is thick with scars for protesting my freedom.

They are deceived who flatter themselves that the ignorant and debased slave has no conception of the magnitude of his wrongs. They are deceived who imagine that he arises from his knees with back lacerated and bleeding, cherishing only a spirit of meekness and forgiveness. A day may come - it will, if his prayer is heard. A terrible day of vengeance when the master in his turn will cry in vain for mercy.

There are few sights more pleasant to the eye, than a wide cotton field when it is in the bloom. It presents an appearance of purity, like an immaculate expanse of light, new-fallen snow.