I sit and sew—my heart aches with desire—

I sit and sew—a useless task it seems, My hands grown tired, my head weighed down with dreams—

In wistful April days, when lovers mate

You sang not deeds of heroes or of kings; No chant of bloody war, no exulting pean

How, in your darkness, did you come to know The power and beauty of the minstrel’s lyre

The white man's victory soon became complete by fraud, violence, intimidation and murder

This is a white man's government," and regardless of numbers the white man should rule

During the slave regime, the Southern white man owned the Negro body and soul.

Throughout history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness

One ever feels his two-ness,--an American, a Negro;

 And yet, being a problem is a strange experience,--peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe

One of their customs, often alluded to in the songs (as in No. 19), is that of wandering through the woods and swamps, when under religious excitement, like the ancient bacchantes.

 Still, the chief part of the negro music is civilized in its character--partly composed under the influence of association with the whites,

When the "base" begins, the leader often stops, leaving the rest of his words to be guessed at, or it may be they are taken up by one of the other singers.

valuable piece of property

They lived together in a comfortable home; and, though we were all slaves, I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece

 I WAS born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away.

There's certainly no dispositionto do contrary to your desires; try and be a little reasonable.

Giving his head an unconscious scratch accompanied with a slight twitch ofthe corner of the mouth, Franks seemed to comprehend the whole of it.

Mammy Judy, who for years had occupied this position, ceded it to herdaughter; she preferring, in consequence of age, the less active life of theculinary department

My master had repeatedly told him not to attempt to whip Randall, but he was determined to try it.

I said I felt like one who had escaped a den of hungry lions. This state of mind, however, very soon subsided; and I was again seized with a feeling of great Page 108 insecurity and loneliness.

  I was now getting, as I have said, one dollar and fifty cents per day. I contracted for it; I earned it; it was paid to me; it was rightfully my own; yet, upon each returning Saturday night, I was compelled to deliver every cent of that money to Master Hugh. And why? Not because he earned it

During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write

In learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindly aid of my mistress. I acknowledge the benefit of both.

He seemed to take pleasure in manifesting his fiendish barbarity

The meanest slave was put fully at ease in her presence, and none left without feeling better for having seen her

I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I remember any thing. It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant.

Very little communication ever took place between us.

 My father was a white man

To tear the black man from his soil. And forn• him here to ddw and toil~

.Vhitftdd has often been durdclerilt'd as a cyni.:al ,mJ pt'ssimistic pot•l imilali,e of Hymn in both the form and philos,1phy

Two ye_ars later she sued successfully for the return of her son Peter from enslavement 1n Alab~ma.

A leading exponent of liberty in both the abolitionist and feminist movements in the mid-nineteenth century, Sojourner Truth was an extraordinarily self-possessed person.

Truth paused, pla1!-ted her cane firmly, drew herself up to her full six-foot height, and in her deep, resonant voice, replied, "I am that I am." The unnerved officer vanished. Sojourner Truth went on to her destina-tion undisturbed.

Mankind are becoming wiser, and better—the oppressor’s power is fading, and you, every day, are becoming better informed, and more numerous.

praying God that this little book may be borne on the four winds of heaven, until the principles it contains shall be understood and adopted by every slave in the Union.

and who can dispense with prejudice long enough to admit that we are men, notwithstanding our improminent noses and woolly heads, and believe that we feel for our fathers, mothers, wives and children, as well as the whites do for theirs.

I do not only expect to be held up to the public as an ignorant, impudent and restless disturber of the public peace, by such avaricious creatures, as well as a mover of insubordination

but there must be a willingness on our part, for GOD to do these things for us, for we may be assured that he will not take us by the hairs of our head against our will and desire, and drag us from our very, mean, low and abject condition.

But you know, do you not, that a negro's as vile as a dog; society rejects him; men detest him; the laws curse him ....

I had seen so many exquisite landsc~pe~ and thick, tall forests

Ill health and a changi~g socia1 :rnd cultural climate contributed to a major decline in Sejour's fortunes in the last years of his life.

and he tucked away in his memory things that later would prove to be useful to him as an "African minister."

after witnessing the destruction of those for whose happiness, she was more concerned, than for her own, receive a cruel and ignominous death.

Famine which had usurped the place of plenty and happiness,

An icy chillness pervaded her whole nature -a dark mist covered her eyes -all the objects by which she was surrounded seemed to recede -her senses were bewildered, and Amanda, unobserved by her mother, swooned and fell to the earth. But soon recovering, she beheld the piece of Gourd bark pinned to the skirt of her mother's coat -she hastened to unpin -it was the hand writing of Theresa -they read it with avidity -joyful in the happy discovery, the mother and the daughter embraced each other.

Ye blooming plants of human race divine,

20: Life without death, and glory without end.

15: He hears revilers, nor resents their scorn

The names of whom I'll not leave out.

Which caused his friends much grief and pain.

Was taken and carried to Canada.

Adultery, however, was sometimes punished with slavery or death; a punishment which I believe is inflicted on it throughout most of the nations of Africa*:

If then the following narrative does not appear sufficiently interesting to engage general attention, let my motive be some excuse for its publication. I am not so foolishly vain as to expect from it either immortality or literary reputation. If it affords any satisfaction to my numerous friends, at whose request it has been written, or in the smallest degree promotes the interests of humanity, the ends for which it was undertaken will be fully attained, and every wish of my heart gratified. Let it therefore be remembered, that, in wishing to avoid censure, I do not aspire to praise.

People generally think those memoirs only worthy to be read or remembered which abound in great or striking events, those, in short, which in a high degree excite either admiration or pity: all others they consign to contempt and oblivion

About this time I lost a chest, containing besides clothing, about thirty-eight pounds in paper money. It was burnt by accident.

Though there were many noxious animals there; yet so kind was our Almighty protector, that none of them were ever permitted to hurt or molest us

THE following account of the life of VENTURE, is a relation of simple facts, in which nothing is added in substance to what he related himself

with the leave of my Master