than himself, but in so doing was guilty of the unpardonable sin of
lifting his hand against white lads; and the father of one of them,
therefore, deemed it consistent with his manhood to lay in wait for the
young slave, and beat him over the head with a heavy cane till the
blood gushed from his nose and ears. From the effects of that treatment
the poor lad was confined to his bed for five weeks, at the end of which
time he found that, to his personal sufferings, were superadded the
calamity of the loss of the best master he ever had in slavery.

His next employment was that of waiter on board a steam-boat plying on
the Mississippi. Here his occupation again was pleasant, and his
treatment good; but the freedom of action enjoyed by the passengers in
travelling whithersoever they pleased, contrasted strongly in his mind
with his own deprivation of will as a slave. The natural result of this
comparison was an intense desire for freedom--a feeling which was never
afterwards eradicated from his breast. This love of liberty was,
however, so strongly counteracted by affection for his mother and
sisters, that although urgently entreated by one of the latter to take
advantage of his present favourable opportunity for escape, he would not
bring himself to do so at the expense of a separation for life from his
beloved relatives.

His period of living on board the steamer having expired, he was again
remitted to field labour, under a burning sun. From that labour, from
which he suffered severely, he was soon removed to the lighter and more
agreeable occupation of house-waiter to his master. About this time Dr.
Young, in the conventional phraseology of the locality, "got religion."
The fruit of his alleged spiritual gain, was the loss of many material
comforts to the slaves. Destitute of the resources of education, they
were in the habit of employing their otherwise unoccupied minds on the