I had never been permitted to learn to read; but I used to attend church,
and there I received instruction which I trust was of some benefit to me.
I trusted, too, that I had experienced the renewing influences of the
gospel; and after obtaining from my mistress a written _permit_, (a thing
_always_ required in such a case,) I had been baptised and received into
fellowship with the Baptist denomination. So that in religious matters, I
had been indulged in the exercise of my own conscience--a favor not always
granted to slaves. Indeed I, with others, was often told by the minister
how good God was in bringing us over to this country from dark and
benighted Africa, and permitting us to listen to the sound of the gospel.
To me, God also granted temporal freedom, which _man_ without God's
consent, had stolen away.

I often heard select portions of the scriptures read. And on the Sabbath
there was one sermon preached expressly for the colored people which it
was generally my privilege to hear. I became quite familiar with the
texts, "Servants be obedient to your masters."--"Not with eye service as
men pleasers."--"He that knoweth his master's will and doeth it not, shall
be beaten with many stripes," and others of this class: for they formed
the basis of most of these public instructions to us. The first
commandment impressed upon our minds was to obey our masters, and the
second was like unto it, namely, to do as much work when they or the
overseers were not watching us as when they were. But connected with these
instructions there was more or less that was truly excellent; though mixed
up with much that would sound strangely in the ears of freedom. There was
one very kind hearted Episcopal minister whom I often used to hear; he was
very popular with the colored people. But after he had preached a sermon
to us in which he argued from the Bible that it was the will of heaven
from all eternity we should be slaves, and our masters be our owners, most
of us left him; for like some of the faint hearted disciples in early