There Are No Bonds So

But I Now Entered On My Fifteenth Year - A Sad Epoch In The Life Of A Slave Girl. My Master Began To Whisper Foul Words In My Ear. Young As I Was, I Could Not Remain Ignorant Of Their Import

The War Of My Life Had Begun; And Though One Of God's Most Powerless Creatures, I Resolved Never To Be Conquered.

There Is Something Akin To Freedom In Having A Lover Who Has No Control Over You, Except That Which He Gains By Kindness And Attachment.

Southern Women Often Marry A Man Knowing That He Is The Father Of Many Little Slaves. They Do Not Trouble Themselves About It.

I Was Ordered To Go For Flowers, That My Mistress's House Might Be Decorated For An Evening Party. I Spent The Day Gathering Flowers And Weaving Them Into Festoons, While The Dead Body Of My Father Was Lying Within A Mile Of Me. What Cared My Owners For That? He Was Merely A Piece Of Property. Moreover, They Thought He Had Spoiled His Children, By Teaching Them To Feel That They Were Human Beings. This Was Blasphemous Doctrine For A Slave To Teach; Presumptuous In Him, And Dangerous To The Masters.