One of my earliest recollections is
that of my mother cooking a chicken late at night, and awakening her
children for the purpose of feeding them. How or where she got it I
do not know. I presume, however, it was procured from our owner's
farm. Some people may call this theft. If such a thing were to
happen now, I should condemn it as theft myself. But taking place at
the time it did, and for the reason that it did, no one could ever
make me believe that my mother was guilty of thieving. She was simply
a victim of the system of slavery. I cannot remember having slept in
a bed until after our family was declared free by the Emancipation
Proclamation. Three children -- John, my older brother, Amanda, my
sister, and myself -- had a pallet on the dirt floor, or, to be more
correct, we slept in and on a bundle of filthy rags laid upon the dirt
floor.
I was asked not long ago to tell something about the sports and
pastimes that I engaged in during my youth. Until that question was
asked it had never occurred to me that there was no period of my life
that was devoted to play. From the time that I can remember anything,
almost every day of my life had been occupied in some kind of labour;
though I think I would now be a more useful man if I had had time for
sports.
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