I cannot describe it, only it seemed as though I was in heaven. I used to
lie awake whole nights thinking of it. And oh, the strange thoughts that
passed through my soul, like so many rivers of light; deep and rich were
their waves as they rolled;--these were more to me than sleep, more than
soft slumber after long months of watching over the decaying, fading frame
of a friend, and the loved one laid to rest in the dust. But I cannot
describe my feelings to those who have never been slaves; then why should
I attempt it? He who has passed from spiritual death to life, and received
the witness within his soul that his sins are forgiven, may possibly form
some distant idea, like the ray of the setting sun from the far off
mountain top, of the emotions of an emancipated slave. That opens heaven.
To break the bonds of slavery, opens up at once both earth and heaven.
Neither can be truly seen by us while we are slaves.

And now will the reader take with me a brief review of the road I had
trodden. I cannot here dwell upon its dark shades, though some of these
were black as the pencillings of midnight, but upon the light that had
followed my path from my infancy up, and had at length conducted me quite
out of the deep abyss of bondage. There is a hymn opening with the
following stanza, which very much expresses my feelings:

"When all thy mercies, Oh my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I'm lost
In wonder, love, and praise."

I had endured what a freeman would indeed call hard fare; but my lot, on
the whole, had been a favored one for a slave. It is known that there is a
wide difference in the situations of what are termed house servants, and
plantation hands. I, though sometimes employed upon the plantation,