CHAPTER XI.

THOUGHTS ON FREEDOM.

After living sometime in Bath, and having the privilege of more
enlightened society, I began to think that it was possible for me to
become a free man in some way besides going into the army or running away,
as I had often thought of doing. I had listened to the conversation of
others, and determined to ask legal counsel on the subject the first
opportunity I could find. Very soon after, as I was drawing wood, I met on
the river bridge, Mr. D. Cruger, the eminent lawyer before mentioned, and
I asked him to tell me if I was not free, by the laws of New York. He
started, and looked around him as if afraid to answer my question, but
after a while told me I was _not_ free. I passed on, but the answer to my
question by no means satisfied me, especially when I remembered the
hesitancy with which it was given.

I sought another opportunity to speak with Mr. Cruger, and at last found
him in his office alone; then he conversed freely on the subject of
Slavery, telling me that Capt. Helm could not hold me as a slave in that
State, if I chose to leave him, and then directed me to D. Comstock and J.
Moore; the first being at the head of a manumission society, and the last
named gentleman one of its directors.

Our condition, as I have said before, was greatly improved; and yet the
more we knew of freedom the more we desired it, and the less willing were