Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/205

Rh enchanting to the eye of the freeman, seemed to me like shrouded spectres, who came to terrify and torment me with the thought of my wretched state.

“Often in the profound silence of a summer Sunday have I stood alone upon the lofty shores of this magnificent bay, and with a heavy heart and tearful eyes followed the innumerable crowd of sail floating out towards the great ocean. The sight of these affected me powerfully. My thoughts sought for expression, and there in the ear of the one Almighty Auditor did my soul pour forth her lament, though in a rude and untaught manner, as if addressing the sailing ships: ‘You are released from your bonds, and are free. I am enchained by my fetters, and am a slave! You speed on joyfully before the wind. I am driven on painfully by the bloody whip. You are the swift-winged angels of freedom, who fly around the world. I am fettered by an iron chain. Oh, that I were but free! Oh, that I were but standing on one of your stately decks, beneath the shadow of your protecting wings. Ah! between you and me rolls the pitiless sea! Go! go! Oh, that I also could go! If I could only swim. If I could but fly! Oh, why was I born a man to become a chattel! That glad ship is gone; it is losing itself in the dim distance. I am left in the burning hell of endless slavery. Oh God, save me! God release me! Let me become free! Is there a God? Why am I a slave? I will fly. I will not endure it! Free or in bondage—I will attempt it—I have only life to lose. I may as well die running as standing. Only think—one hundred miles directly north, and I am free. Attempt it? Yes! so help me God! I will do it. It cannot be intended that I should die a slave. I will trust myself to the sea. This very creek shall bear me to liberty! A better day is in the future!’ ”

And he became free, although several years later. Thank God, he succeeded in saving himself, in becoming