reasonable desire to see my parents, and to part this world in
reconciliation with each other, as well as with God. I should have
rejoiced had his temper permitted him to accede to any offer. But I
thought it too bad, a free man of Jesus Christ, living on "free soil," to
give a man five hundred dollars for the privilege of being let alone, and
to be branded as a thief into the bargain, and that too after I had served
him twenty prime years, without the benefit of being taught so much as the
alphabet.

I wrote him with my own hand, sometime after this, stating that no
proposition would be acceded to by me, which did not include my parents;
and likewise fix the sum for myself more reasonable, and also retract the
offensive charge; to this he maintained a dignified silence. The means I
had acquired by the contributions of kind friends to redeem myself, I laid
by, in case the worst should come; and that designed for the purchase of
my parents, I used in another kind of operation, as the result of which,
my father and two brothers are now in Canada. My mother was sold a second
time, south, but she was eventually found. Several of my sisters married
free men, who purchased their liberty; and three brothers are owned, by
what may be called conscience slaveholders, who hold slaves only for a
term of years. My old master has since died; my mother and he are now in
the other world together, she is at rest from him. Sometime after his
death, I received information from a gentleman, intimate with his heirs,
(who are principally females) that the reduced state of the family,
afforded not only a good opportunity to obtain a release upon reasonable
terms, but also to render the children of my oppressor some pecuniary aid;
and much as I had suffered, I must confess this latter was the stronger
motive with me, for acceding to their offer made by him.

I have many other deeply interesting particulars touching our family