When eight years of age, I was taken to the “great house,” or the family mansion of my master, to serve as an errand boy, where I had to stand in the presence of my master’s family all the day, and a part of the night, ready to do any thing which they commanded me to perform.

My master’s family consisted of himself and wife, and seven children.  His overseer, whose name was Barsly Taylor, had also a wife and five children.  These constituted the white population on the plantation.  Capt.  Helm was the owner of about one hundred slaves, which made the residents on the plantation number about one hundred and sixteen persons in all.  One hundred and seven of them, were required to labor for the benefit of the remaining nine, who possessed that vast domain; and one hundred of the number doomed to unrequited toil, under the lash of a cruel task-master during life, with no hope of release this side of the grave, and as far as the cruel oppressor is concerned, shut out from hope beyond it.

And here let me ask, why is this practice of working slaves half clad, poorly fed, with nothing or nearly so, to stimulate them to exertion, but fear of the lash?  Do the best interests of our common country require it?  I think not.  Did the true interest of Capt.  Helm demand it?  Whatever may have been his opinion, I cannot think it did.  Can it be for the best interest or good of the enslaved?  Certainly not; for there is no real inducement for the slaveholder to make beasts of burden of his fellow men, but that which was frankly acknowledged by Gibbs and other pirates:  “we have the power,”—­the power to rob and murder on the high seas!—­which they will undoubtedly continue to hold, until overtaken by justice; which will certainly come some time, just as sure as that a righteous God reigns over the earth or rules in heaven.

Some have attempted to apologize for the enslaving of the Negro, by saying that they are inferior to the Anglo-Saxon race in every respect.  This charge I deny; it is utterly false.  Does not the Bible inform us that “God hath created of one blood all the nations of the earth?” And certainly in stature and physical force the colored man is quite equal to his white brother, and in many instances his superior; but were it otherwise, I can not see why the more favored class should enslave the other.  True, God has given to the African a darker complexion than to his white brother; still, each have the same desires and aspirations.  The food required for the sustenance of one is equally necessary for the other.  Naturally or physically, they alike require to be warmed by the cheerful fire, when chilled by our northern winter’s breath; and alike they welcome the cool spring and the delightful shade of summer.  Hence, I have come to the conclusion that God created all men free and equal, and placed them upon this earth to do good and benefit each other, and that war and slavery should be banished from the face of the earth.