I am well aware that many will accuse me of indecorum for presenting these pages to the public; for the experiences of this intelligent and much-injured woman belong to a class which some call delicate subjects, and others indelicate. This peculiar phase of Slavery has generally been kept veiled; but the public ought to be made acquainted with its monstrous features, and I willingly take the responsibility of presenting them with the veil withdrawn. I do this for the sake of my sisters in bondage, who are suffering wrongs so foul, that our ears are too delicate to listen to them. I do it with the hope of arousing conscientious and reflecting women at the North to a sense of their duty in the exertion of moral influence on the question of Slavery, on all possible occasions. I do it with the hope that every man who reads this narrative will swear solemnly before God that, so far as he has power to prevent it, no fugitive from Slavery shall ever be sent back to suffer in that loathsome den of corruption and cruelty. L. Maria Child. Contents Childhood The New Master And Mistress The Slaves’ New Year’s Day The Slave Who Dared To Feel Like A Man The Trials Of Girlhood The Jealous Mistress The Lover What Slaves Are Taught To Think Of The North Sketches Of Neighboring Slaveholders A Perilous Passage In The Slave Girl’s Life The New Tie To Life Fear Of Insurrection The Church And Slavery Another Link To Life Continued Persecutions Scenes At The Plantation The Flight Months Of Peril The Children Sold New Perils The Loophole Of Retreat Christmas Festivities Still In Prison The Candidate For Congress Competition In Cunning Important Era In My Brother’s Life New Destination For The Children Aunt Nancy Preparations For Escape Northward Bound Incidents In Philadelphia The Meeting Of Mother And Daughter A Home Found The Old Enemy Again Prejudice Against Color The Hairbreadth Escape A Visit To England Renewed Invitations To Go South The Confession The Fugitive Slave Law Free At Last Appendix INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL, SEVEN YEARS CONCEALED. * * * * * I. Childhood