Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; or, the escape of William and Ellen Craft from slavery by William Craft;Ellen Craft
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page 5 of 114 (04%)
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My wife's first master was her father, and her mother his slave, and the latter is still the slave of his widow. Notwithstanding my wife being of African ex- traction on her mother's side, she is almost white-- in fact, she is so nearly so that the tyrannical old lady to whom she first belonged became so annoyed, at finding her frequently mistaken for a child of the family, that she gave her when eleven years of age to a daughter, as a wedding present. This separated my wife from her mother, and also from several other dear friends. But the incessant cruelty of her old mistress made the change of owners or treatment so desirable, that she did not grumble much at this cruel separation. It may be remembered that slavery in America is not at all confined to persons of any particular complexion; there are a very large number of slaves as white as any one; but as the evidence of a slave is not admitted in court against a free white person, it is almost impossible for a white child, after having been kidnapped and sold into or re- duced to slavery, in a part of the country where it is not known (as often is the case), ever to recover its freedom. I have myself conversed with several slaves who |
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