times we said,--"This is a hard saying, who can bear it?"

My manumission, as I shall call it; that is, the bill of sale conveying me
to Mr. Smith, was dated Sept. 9th, 1835. I continued in the tobacco and
pipe business as already described, to which I added a small trade in a
variety of articles; and some two years before I left Raleigh, I entered
also into a considerable business in wood, which I used to purchase by the
acre standing, cut it, haul it into the city, deposit it in a yard and
sell it out as I advantageously could. Also I was employed about the
office of the Governor as I shall hereafter relate. I used to keep one or
two horses, and various vehicles, by which I did a variety of work at
hauling about town. Of course I had to hire more or less help, to carry on
my business.

In the manufacture of tobacco I met with considerable competition, but
none that materially injured me. The method of preparing it having
originated with me and my father, we found it necessary, in order to
secure the advantage of the invention, to keep it to ourselves, and
decline, though often solicited, going into partnership with others. Those
who undertook the manufacture could neither give the article a flavor so
pleasant as ours, nor manufacture it so cheaply, so they either failed in
it, or succeeded but poorly.

Not long after obtaining my own freedom, I began seriously to think about
purchasing the freedom of my family. The first proposition was that I
should buy my wife, and that we should jointly labor to obtain the freedom
of the children afterwards as we were able. But that idea was abandoned,
when her master, Mr. Smith, refused to sell her to me for less than one
thousand dollars, a sum which then appeared too much for me to raise.