When I Was Nearly Twelve Years Old,

I Can Testify, From My Own Experience And Observation, That Slavery Is A Curse To The Whites As Well As To The Blacks. It Makes The White Fathers Cruel And Sensual; The Sons Violent And Licentious; It Contaminates The Daughters, And Makes The Wives Wretched. And As For The Colored Race, It Needs An Abler Pen Than Mine To Describe The Extremity Of Their Sufferings, The Depth Of Their Degradation.

If A Slave Is Unwilling To Go With His New Master, He Is Whipped, Or Locked Up In Jail, Until He Consents To Go, And Promises Not To Run Away During The Year.

There Must Be Sophistry In All This; But The Condition Of A Slave Confuses All Principles Of Morality, And, In Fact, Renders The Practice Of Them Impossible.

Cruelty Is Contagious In Uncivilized Communities.

I Would Rather Drudge Out My Life On A Cotton Plantation, Till The Grave Opened To Give Me Rest, Than To Live With An Unprincipled Master And A Jealous Mistress.