A narrative of some remarkable incidents, in the life of Solomon Bayley : $b formerly a slave, in the State of Delaware, North AmericaBayley, Solomon
Religion
A narrative of some remarkable incidents, in the life of Solomon Bayley : $b formerly a slave, in the State of Delaware, North America
Bayley, Solomon
African Americans -- Biography; Bayley, Solomon; Enslaved persons -- Delaware -- Biography; Enslaved persons -- United States -- Biography; Enslaved persons' writings, American -- Delaware; Fugitive slaves -- United States -- Biography; Slavery -- Delaware -- History; Slavery -- Virginia -- History
7th Mo. 24, 1799, I got to Camden. I will yet go on to shew the reader
my uneasiness of mind after I got to Camden. I then thought I wanted
a preparation to adore the goodness of God, that had begun with me in
the back countries, and had brought me through so many difficulties;
but with shame I must confess, I sang his praise, but soon forgot his
works: yet the great God pitied me, and exercised a careful constant
mind towards me, for my good: Oh! how deceitful is the heart of man.
But not long after I got to Camden, my master came from the state of
Virginia, to Camden, Kent County, state of Delaware, where he found me;
whereas he had not seen me since he put me aboard of the back country
waggon, which, as I suppose, is near three or four hundred miles from
Camden: upon first sight he asked me what I was a going to do? I says,
how, master? he asked me, how did I think I was a going to get free, by
running and dodging about in that manner? I said, why, master, I have
suffered a great deal, and seen a great deal of trouble, I think you
might let me go for little or nothing: he said, I wont do that, but I
will give you the same chance I gave you before I sent you away; give
me forty pounds bond and security, and you may be free: but I replied,
I work hard at nights to get a little money to fee my lawyers, and if
it had been right for me to be free, I ought to have been free without
so much trouble; he asked me who I blamed for my trouble? I answered,
I did not consider that I was to blame: Ah! said he, you can see other
people’s faults, but cannot see your own. I said, master, you can’t
blame me for a thing I never did; Ah! said he, my wrongs don’t make
your’s right, and that word put me to silence; but I thought where
the laws of the land made liberty the right of any man, he could, not
be wrong in trying to recover it: but finally he sold me my time for
eighty dollars and I dropped the lawsuit. I went to work, and worked it
out in a shorter time than he gave me, and then I was free from man.
And when I came to think that the yoke was off my neck, and how it was
taken off, I was made to wonder, and to admire, and to adore the order
of kind providence, which assisted me in all the way. But I found in me
a disposition to wander from the path of life, and forget the favour
bestowed upon me, and went astray too shameful to be mentioned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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