Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/20

 very desirous to learn; it was the ability, not the inclination that was wanting. In this difficulty, he had recourse to me, who was on all occasions, his chief counsellor. By putting our heads together, we soon hit upon a plan. My memory was remarkably good, while that of my poor little master was very miserable. We arranged therefore, that the family tutor should first teach me the letters and the abs, which my strong memory, we thought, would enable me easily to retain, and which I was gradually, and between plays, as opportunity served, to instill into the mind of master James. 'This plan we found to answer admirably. Neither the tutor nor colonel Moore made any objection to it; for all that colonel Moore desired was, that his son should learn to read; and the tutor was very willing to shift off the most laborious part of his task upon my shoulders.

As yet, no one had dreamed of those barbarous and detestable laws — unparalleled in any other codes, and destined to be the everlasting disgrace of America — by which it has been made a crime, punishable with fine and imprisonment, to teach a slave to read.

It is not enough that custom and the proud scorn of unfeeling tyranny unite to keep the slave in hopeless and helpless ignorance, but the laws too have openly become a party to this accursed conspiracy! Yes, I believe they would tear out our very eyes, — and that too by virtue of a regularly enacted statute — had they ingenuity enough to invent a way of enabling us to drudge and delve without — them!

I soon learned to read, and before long, I made master — James almost as good a reader as myself. As he was subject to frequent fits of illness, which confined him to the — house, and disabled him from indulging in those native sports to which boys are chiefly devoted, his father obtained for him a large collection of books adapted to his age, which he and I used to read over together, and in which we took great delight.

In the further progress of my young master's studies I was still his associate; for though the plan of teaching me — first, in order that I might afterwards teach him, was