how i learned to read—my mistress—her slaveholding duties—their
deplorable effects upon her originally noble nature—the conflict in her
mind—her final opposition to my learning to read—too late—she had
given me the inch, i was resolved to take the ell—how i pursued
my education—my tutors—how i compensated them—what progress i
made—slavery—what i heard said about it—thirteen years old—the
columbian orator—a rich scene—a dialogue—speeches of chatham,
sheridan, pitt and fox—knowledge ever increasing—my eyes
opened—liberty—how i pined for it—my sadness—the dissatisfaction of
my poor mistress—my hatred of slavery—one upas tree overshadowed us
both.
i lived in the family of master hugh, at baltimore, seven years, during which time—as the almanac makers say of the weather—my condition was variable. the most interesting feature of my history here, was my learning to read and write, under somewhat marked disadvantages. in attaining this knowledge, i was compelled to resort to indirections by no means congenial to my nature, and which were really humiliating to me. my mistress—who, as the reader has already seen, had begun to teach me was suddenly checked in her benevolent design, by the strong advice of her husband. in faithful compliance with this advice, the good lady had not only ceased to instruct me, herself, but had set her face as a flint against my learning to read by any means. it is due, however, to my mistress to say, that she did not adopt this course in all its stringency at the first. she either thought it unnecessary, or she lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in[119] mental darkness. it was, at least, necessary for her to have some training, and some hardening, in the exercise of the slaveholder’s prerogative, to make her equal to forgetting my human nature and character, and to treating me as a thing destitute of a moral or an intellectual nature. mrs. auld—my mistress—was, as i have said, a most kind and tender-hearted woman; and, in the humanity of her heart, and the simplicity of her mind, she set out, when i first went to live with her, to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another.
it is easy to see, that, in entering upon the duties of a slaveholder, some little experience is needed. nature has done almost nothing to prepare men and women to be either slaves or slaveholders. nothing but rigid training, long persisted in, can perfect the character of the one or the other. one cannot easily forget to love freedom; and it is as hard to cease to respect that natural love in our fellow creatures. on entering upon the career of a slaveholding mistress, mrs. auld was singularly deficient; nature, which fits nobody for such an office, had done less for her than any lady i had known. it was no easy matter to induce her to think and to feel that the curly-headed boy, who stood by her side, and even leaned on her lap; who was loved by little tommy, and who loved little tommy in turn; sustained to her only the relation of a chattel. i was more than that, and she felt me to be more than that. i could talk and sing; i could laugh and weep; i could reason and remember; i could love and hate. i was human, and she, dear lady, knew and felt me to be so. how could she, then, treat me as a brute, without a mighty struggle with all the noble powers of her own soul. that struggle came, and the will and power of the husband was victorious. her noble soul was overthrown; but, he that overthrew it did not, himself, escape the consequences. he, not less than the other parties, was injured in his domestic peace by the fall.
when i went into their family, it was the abode of happiness and contentment. the mistress of the house was a model of affection[120] and tenderness. her fervent piety and watchful uprightness made it impossible to see her without thinking and feeling—“that woman is a christian.” there was no sorrow nor suffering for which she had not a tear, and there was no innocent joy for which she did not a smile. she had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these excellent qualities, and her home of its early happiness. conscience cannot stand much violence. once thoroughly broken down, who is he that can repair the damage? it may be broken toward the slave, on sunday, and toward the master on monday. it cannot endure such shocks. it must stand entire, or it does not stand at all. if my condition waxed bad, that of the family waxed not better. the first step, in the wrong direction, was the violence done to nature and to conscience, in arresting the benevolence that would have enlightened my young mind. in ceasing to instruct me, she must begin to justify herself to herself; and, once consenting to take sides in such a debate, she was riveted to her position. one needs very little knowledge of moral philosophy, to see where my mistress now landed. she finally became even more violent in her opposition to my learning to read, than was her husband himself. she was not satisfied with simply doing as well as her husband had commanded her, but seemed resolved to better his instruction. nothing appeared to make my poor mistress—after her turning toward the downward path—more angry, than seeing me, seated in some nook or corner, quietly reading a book or a newspaper. i have had her rush at me, with the utmost fury, and snatch from my hand such newspaper or book, with something of the wrath and consternation which a traitor might be supposed to feel on being discovered in a plot by some dangerous spy.
mrs. auld was an apt woman, and the advice of her husband, and her own experience, soon demonstrated, to her entire satisfaction, that education and slavery are incompatible with each other. when this conviction was thoroughly established, i was[121] most narrowly watched in all my movements. if i remained in a separate room from the family for any considerable length of time, i was sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at once called upon to give an account of myself. all this, however, was entirely too late. the first, and never to be retraced, step had been taken. in teaching me the alphabet, in the days of her simplicity and kindness, my mistress had given me the “inch,” and now, no ordinary precaution could prevent me from taking the “ell.”
seized with a determination to learn to read, at any cost, i hit upon many expedients to accomplish the desired end. the plea which i mainly adopted, and the one by which i was most successful, was that of using my young white playmates, with whom i met in the streets as teachers. i used to carry, almost constantly, a copy of webster’s spelling book in my pocket; and, when sent of errands, or when play time was allowed me, i would step, with my young friends, aside, and take a lesson in spelling. i generally paid my tuition fee to the boys, with bread, which i also carried in my pocket. for a single biscuit, any of my hungry little comrades would give me a lesson more valuable to me than bread. not every one, however, demanded this consideration, for there were those who took pleasure in teaching me, whenever i had a chance to be taught by them. i am strongly tempted to give the names of two or three of those little boys, as a slight testimonial of the gratitude and affection i bear them, but prudence forbids; not that it would injure me, but it might, possibly, embarrass them; for it is almost an unpardonable offense to do any thing, directly or indirectly, to promote a slave’s freedom, in a slave state. it is enough to say, of my warm-hearted little play fellows, that they lived on philpot street, very near durgin & bailey’s shipyard.
although slavery was a delicate subject, and very cautiously talked about among grown up people in maryland, i frequently talked about it—and that very freely—with the white boys. i[122] would, sometimes, say to them, while seated on a curb stone or a cellar door, “i wish i could be free, as you will be when you get to be men.” “you will be free, you know, as soon as you are twenty-one, and can go where you like, but i am a slave for life. have i not as good a right to be free as you have?” words like these, i observed, always troubled them; and i had no small satisfaction in wringing from the boys, occasionally, that fresh and bitter condemnation of slavery, that springs from nature, unseared and unperverted. of all consciences let me have those to deal with which have not been bewildered by the cares of life. i do not remember ever to have met with a boy, while i was in slavery, who defended the slave system; but i have often had boys to console me, with the hope that something would yet occur, by which i might be made free. over and over again, they have told me, that “they believed i had as good a right to be free as they had;” and that “they did not believe god ever made any one to be a slave.” the reader will easily see, that such little conversations with my play fellows, had no tendency to weaken my love of liberty, nor to render me contented with my condition as a slave.
when i was about thirteen years old, and had succeeded in learning to read, every increase of knowledge, especially respecting the free states, added something to the almost intolerable burden of the thought—i am a slave for life. to my bondage i saw no end. it was a terrible reality, and i shall never be able to tell how sadly that thought chafed my young spirit. fortunately, or unfortunately, about this time in my life, i had made enough money to buy what was then a very popular school book, viz: the columbian orator. i bought this addition to my library, of mr. knight, on thames street, fell’s point, baltimore, and paid him fifty cents for it. i was first led to buy this book, by hearing some little boys say they were going to learn some little pieces out of it for the exhibition. this volume was, indeed, a rich treasure, and every opportunity afforded me, for[123] a time, was spent in diligently perusing it. among much other interesting matter, that which i had perused and reperused with unflagging satisfaction, was a short dialogue between a master and his slave. the slave is represented as having been recaptured, in a second attempt to run away; and the master opens the dialogue with an upbraiding speech, charging the slave with ingratitude, and demanding to know what he has to say in his own defense. thus upbraided, and thus called upon to reply, the slave rejoins, that he knows how little anything that he can say will avail, seeing that he is completely in the hands of his owner; and with noble resolution, calmly says, “i submit to my fate.” touched by the slave’s answer, the master insists upon his further speaking, and recapitulates the many acts of kindness which he has performed toward the slave, and tells him he is permitted to speak for himself. thus invited to the debate, the quondam slave made a spirited defense of himself, and thereafter the whole argument, for and against slavery, was brought out. the master was vanquished at every turn in the argument; and seeing himself to be thus vanquished, he generously and meekly emancipates the slave, with his best wishes for his prosperity. it is scarcely neccessary(sic) to say, that a dialogue, with such an origin, and such an ending—read when the fact of my being a slave was a constant burden of grief—powerfully affected me; and i could not help feeling that the day might come, when the well-directed answers made by the slave to the master, in this instance, would find their counterpart in myself.
this, however, was not all the fanaticism which i found in this columbian orator. i met there one of sheridan’s mighty speeches, on the subject of catholic emancipation, lord chatham’s speech on the american war, and speeches by the great william pitt and by fox. these were all choice documents to me, and i read them, over and over again, with an interest that was ever increasing, because it was ever gaining in intelligence; for the more i read them, the better i understood them. the reading of[124] these speeches added much to my limited stock of language, and enabled me to give tongue to many interesting thoughts, which had frequently flashed through my soul, and died away for want of utterance. the mighty power and heart-searching directness of truth, penetrating even the heart of a slaveholder, compelling him to yield up his earthly interests to the claims of eternal justice, were finely illustrated in the dialogue, just referred to; and from the speeches of sheridan, i got a bold and powerful denunciation of oppression, and a most brilliant vindication of the rights of man. here was, indeed, a noble acquisition. if i ever wavered under the consideration, that the almighty, in some way, ordained slavery, and willed my enslavement for his own glory, i wavered no longer. i had now penetrated the secret of all slavery and oppression, and had ascertained their true foundation to be in the pride, the power and the avarice of man. the dialogue and the speeches were all redolent of the principles of liberty, and poured floods of light on the nature and character of slavery. with a book of this kind in my hand, my own human nature, and the facts of my experience, to help me, i was equal to a contest with the religious advocates of slavery, whether among the whites or among the colored people, for blindness, in this matter, is not confined to the former. i have met many religious colored people, at the south, who are under the delusion that god requires them to submit to slavery, and to wear their chains with meekness and humility. i could entertain no such nonsense as this; and i almost lost my patience when i found any colored man weak enough to believe such stuff. nevertheless, the increase of knowledge was attended with bitter, as well as sweet results. the more i read, the more i was led to abhor and detest slavery, and my enslavers. “slaveholders,” thought i, “are only a band of successful robbers, who left their homes and went into africa for the purpose of stealing and reducing my people to slavery.” i loathed them as the meanest and the most wicked of men. as i read, behold! the very discontent so graphically pre[125] dicted by master hugh, had already come upon me. i was no longer the light-hearted, gleesome boy, full of mirth and play, as when i landed first at baltimore. knowledge had come; light had penetrated the moral dungeon where i dwelt; and, behold! there lay the bloody whip, for my back, and here was the iron chain; and my good, kind master, he was the author of my situation. the revelation haunted me, stung me, and made me gloomy and miserable. as i writhed under the sting and torment of this knowledge, i almost envied my fellow slaves their stupid contentment. this knowledge opened my eyes to the horrible pit, and revealed the teeth of the frightful dragon that was ready to pounce upon me, but it opened no way for my escape. i have often wished myself a beast, or a bird—anything, rather than a slave. i was wretched and gloomy, beyond my ability to describe. i was too thoughtful to be happy. it was this everlasting thinking which distressed and tormented me; and yet there was no getting rid of the subject of my thoughts. all nature was redolent of it. once awakened by the silver trump of knowledge, my spirit was roused to eternal wakefulness. liberty! the inestimable birthright of every man, had, for me, converted every object into an asserter of this great right. it was heard in every sound, and beheld in every object. it was ever present, to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. the more beautiful and charming were the smiles of nature, the more horrible and desolate was my condition. i saw nothing without seeing it, and i heard nothing without hearing it. i do not exaggerate, when i say, that it looked from every star, smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.
i have no doubt that my state of mind had something to do with the change in the treatment adopted, by my once kind mistress toward me. i can easily believe, that my leaden, downcast, and discontented look, was very offensive to her. poor lady! she did not know my trouble, and i dared not tell her. could i have freely made her acquainted with the real state of my mind, and[126] given her the reasons therefor, it might have been well for both of us. her abuse of me fell upon me like the blows of the false prophet upon his ass; she did not know that an angel stood in the way; and—such is the relation of master and slave i could not tell her. nature had made us friends; slavery made us enemies. my interests were in a direction opposite to hers, and we both had our private thoughts and plans. she aimed to keep me ignorant; and i resolved to know, although knowledge only increased my discontent. my feelings were not the result of any marked cruelty in the treatment i received; they sprung from the consideration of my being a slave at all. it was slavery—not its mere incidents—that i hated. i had been cheated. i saw through the attempt to keep me in ignorance; i saw that slaveholders would have gladly made me believe that they were merely acting under the authority of god, in making a slave of me, and in making slaves of others; and i treated them as robbers and deceivers. the feeding and clothing me well, could not atone for taking my liberty from me. the smiles of my mistress could not remove the deep sorrow that dwelt in my young bosom. indeed, these, in time, came only to deepen my sorrow. she had changed; and the reader will see that i had changed, too. we were both victims to the same overshadowing evil—she, as mistress, i, as slave. i will not censure her harshly; she cannot censure me, for she knows i speak but the truth, and have acted in my opposition to slavery, just as she herself would have acted, in a reverse of circumstances.
