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Lunsford Lane
[Lunsford Lane was enslaved on a tobacco plantation near Raleigh, North Carolina, until he earned enough money to buy his freedom and that of his wife and seven children. This narrative dates from 1842.]
The apartment where I was born and where I spent my childhood was called "the kitchen," situated some fifteen or twenty rods from the "great house." Here the house servants lodged and lived, and here the meals were prepared for the people in the mansion.
My infancy was spent upon the floor, in a rough cradle, or sometimes in my mother's arms. While playing with the other boys and girls, colored and white, I knew no difference between myself and the white children; nor did they seem to know any in turn. Sometimes my master would come out and give a biscuit to me, and another to one of his own white boys; but I did not perceive the difference between us.
When I began to work. I discovered the difference between myself and my master's white children. They began to order me about, and were told to do so by my master and mistress. I found, too, that they had learned to read; while I was not permitted to have a book in my hand. To be in possession of anything written or printed was regarded as an offence. And then there was the fear that I might be sold away from those who were dear to me, and conveyed to the far South. I had learned that being a slave I was subject to the worst (to us) of all calamities; and I knew of others in similar situations to myself, thus sold away. My friends were not numerous; but in proportion as they were few they were dear; and the thought that I might be separated from them forever, was like that of having the heart wrenched from its socket; while the idea of being conveyed to the far South, seemed infinitely worse than the terrors of death.
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