other things necessary to be done, took the whole day. So my life went
wearily on from day to day, from night to night, and from week to week.

When I began to work, I discovered the difference between myself and my
master's white children. They began to order me about, and were told to do
so by my master and mistress. I found, too, that they had learned to read,
while I was not permitted to have a book in my hand. To be in the
possession of anything written or printed, was regarded as an offence. And
then there was the fear that I might be sold away from those who were dear
to me, and conveyed to the far South. I had learned that being a slave I
was subject to this worst (to us) of all calamities; and I knew of others
in similar situations to myself, thus sold away. My friends were not
numerous; but in proportion as they were few they were dear; and the
thought that I might be separated from them forever, was like that of
having the heart wrenched from its socket; while the idea of being
conveyed to the far South, seemed infinitely worse than the terrors of
death. To know, also, that I was never to consult my own will, but was,
while I lived, to be entirely under the control of another, was another
state of mind hard for me to bear. Indeed all things now made me _feel_,
what I had before known only in words, that _I was a slave_. Deep was this
feeling, and it preyed upon my heart like a never-dying worm. I saw no
prospect that my condition would ever be changed. Yet I used to plan in my
mind from day to day, and from night to night, how I might be free.

One day, while I was in this state of mind, my father gave me a small
basket of peaches. I sold them for thirty cents, which was the first money
I ever had in my life. Afterwards I won some marbles, and sold them for
sixty cents, and some weeks after Mr. Hog from Fayetteville, came to visit
my master, and on leaving gave me one dollar. After that Mr. Bennahan from
Orange county gave me a dollar, and a son of my master fifty cents. These