Page:The Under-Ground Railroad.djvu/9



The Author of the following work is a gentleman of colour, who was born and reared in North Carolina, United States. In early life he was left a destitute orphan, and had but few educational advantages. By the local authorities of Guildford County, in that state, he was bound apprentice to a Planter, whose land was cultivated by the unrequited toil of a company of his enslaved fellow-creatures, whose labour was enforced by the whip, and whose faults, real or fictitious, were punished by torture. His master was also a heartless trader in human beings. It affords a glimpse into Slave morals, that though our Author was freeborn, and, in consequence of his mother being an Indian, legally exempt from bondage, it was necessary to provide expressly in the indenture by which he was bound, against his being kidnapped or ensnared into Slavery. In this service he mis-spent twelve precious years of his life, and became inured to the inflicting of the cruelties attendant upon Man-stealing and Slave-driving. During the last five years of the time, the entire managenentmanagement [sic] of the business was committed to his hands. Hence he is