me a slave, but made me the slave of him to whom my mother belonged; as
the primary law of slavery is, that the child shall follow the condition
of the mother.

When I was about four years of age, my mother, an older brother and
myself, were given to a son of my master, who had studied for the medical
profession, but who had now married wealthy, and was about to settle as a
wheat planter in Washington County, on the western shore. This began the
first of our family troubles that I knew anything about, as it occasioned
a separation between my mother and the only two children she then had, and
my father, to a distance of about two hundred miles. But this separation
did not continue long; my father being a valuable slave, my master was
glad to purchase him.

About this time, I began to feel another evil of slavery--I mean the want
of parental care and attention. My parents were not able to give any
attention to their children during the day. I often suffered much from
_hunger_ and other similar causes. To estimate the sad state of a slave
child, you must look at it as a helpless human being thrown upon the world
without the benefit of its natural guardians. It is thrown into the world
without a social circle to flee to for hope, shelter, comfort, or
instruction. The social circle, with all its heaven-ordained blessings, is
of the utmost importance to the _tender child_; but of this, the slave
child, however tender and delicate, is robbed.

There is another source of evil to slave children, which I cannot forbear
to mention here, as one which early embittered my life,--I mean the
tyranny of the master's children. My master had two sons, about the ages
and sizes of my older brother and myself. We were not only required to
recognise these young sirs as our young masters, but _they_ felt