Page:The Under-Ground Railroad.djvu/166

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of persons;" why then should I be a Slave to another? I can read as well as my mistress, I can reason as logically, I can think as clearly; why should I not think, reason, and act for myself. A knowledge of my condition makes me unhappy, independent of my good usage from humane owners. It is slavery I hate and not my owners. On hearing these noble sentiments fall from the lips of a person, once a slave, and in a manner most insinuating, with all the dignity of the most refined and cultivated person, and with an indignation expressive of the deepest abhorrence for the nefarious system of unmittigated, inhuman, chattelism. I surely felt I was in the presence of a superior being.

Persons without trades, in this town as in others, find sufficient employment, at white-washing houses, fences, cutting and splitting wood, working in gardens, digging wells, &c., for all such labour they get from four or five shillings per day. They also get a fair portion of the public works. When the Grand Trunk Railway was being constructed, about 1500 hands were employed, 500 of whom were coloured men. I consider this quite a fair proportion. About ten miles from Windsor there is a settlement of 5000, which extends over a large portion of Essex County, of this settlement some places are more densely inhabited than others. It is called the Fugitive's Home. Several years ago, a very enterprising