Freedom Is A Road Seldom Traveled By

From My Earliest Recollection, I Date The Entertainment Of A Deep Conviction That Slavery Would Not Always Be Able To Hold Me Within Its Foul Embrace; And In The Darkest Hours Of My Career In Slavery, This Living Word Of Faith And Spirit Of Hope Departed Not From Me, But Remained Like Ministering Angels To Cheer Me Through The Gloom. This Good Spirit Was From God, And To Him I Offer Thanksgiving And Praise.

Once Let The Black Man Get Upon His Person The Brass Letter, U.s., Let Him Get An Eagle On His Button, And A Musket On His Shoulder And Bullets In His Pocket, There Is No Power On Earth That Can Deny That He Has Earned The Right To Citizenship.

Be Not Discouraged. There Is A Future For You. . . . The Resistance Encountered Now Predicates Hope. . .

The Ballot Is The Only Safety.

Though Conscious Of The Difficulty Of Learning Without A Teacher, I Set Out With High Hope, And A Fixed Purpose, At Whatever Cost Of Trouble, To Learn How To Read.