Life in BaltimoreCITY ANNOYANCES--PLANTATION REGRETS--MY MISTRESS, MISS SOPHA--HERHISTORY--HER KINDNESS TO ME--MY MASTER, HUGH AULD--HIS SOURNESS--MY INCREASED SENSITIVENESS--MY COMFORTS--MY OCCUPATION--THEBANEFUL EFFECTS OF SLAVEHOLDING ON MY DEAR AND GOOD MISTRESS--HOWSHE COMMENCED TEACHING ME TO READ--WHY SHE CEASED TEACHING ME--CLOUDS GATHERING OVER MY BRIGHT PROSPECTS--MASTER AULD'SEXPOSITION OF THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY OF SLAVERY--CITY SLAVES--PLANTATION SLAVES--THE CONTRAST--EXCEPTIONS--MR. HAMILTON'S TWOSLAVES, HENRIETTA AND MARY--MRS. HAMILTON'S CRUEL TREATMENT OFTHEM--THE PITEOUS ASPECT THEY PRESENTED--NO POWER MUST COMEBETWEEN THE SLAVE AND THE SLAVEHOLDER.
Once in Baltimore, with hard brick pavements under my feet, which almost raised blisters, by their very heat, for it was in the height of summer; walled in on all sides by towering brick buildings; with troops of hostile boys ready to pounce upon me at every street corner; with new and strange objects glaring upon me at every step, and with startling sounds reaching my ears from all directions, I for a time thought that, after all, the home plantation was a more desirable place of residence than my home on Alliciana street, in Baltimore. My country eyes and ears were confused and bewildered here; but the boys were my chief trouble.
They chased me, and called me _"Eastern Shore man,"_ till really I almost wished myself back on the Eastern Shore. I had to undergo a sort of moral acclimation, and when that was over, Idid much better. My new mistress happily proved to be all she _seemed_ to be, when, with her husband, she met me at <111KINDNESS OF MY NEW MISTRESS>the door, with a most beaming, benignant countenance. She was, naturally, of an excellent disposition, kind, gentle and cheerful. The supercilious contempt for the rights and feelings of the slave, and the petulance and bad humor which generally characterize slaveholding ladies, were all quite absent from kind "Miss" Sophia's manner and bearing toward me. She had, in truth, never been a slaveholder, but had--a thing quite unusual in the south--depended almost entirely upon her own industry for a living. To this fact the dear lady, no doubt, owed the excellent preservation of her natural goodness of heart, for slavery can change a saint into a sinner, and an angel into a demon. Ihardly knew how to behave toward "Miss Sopha," as I used to call Mrs. Hugh Auld. I had been treated as a _pig_ on the plantation;I was treated as a _child_ now. I could not even approach her as I had formerly approached Mrs. Thomas Auld. How could I hang down my head, and speak with bated breath, when there was no pride to scorn me, no coldness to repel me, and no hatred to inspire me with fear? I therefore soon learned to regard her as something more akin to a mother, than a slaveholding mistress.
The crouching servility of a slave, usually so acceptable a quality to the haughty slaveholder, was not understood nor desired by this gentle woman. So far from deeming it impudent in a slave to look her straight in the face, as some slaveholding ladies do, she seemed ever to say, "look up, child; don't be afraid; see, I am full of kindness and good will toward you."The hands belonging to Col. Lloyd's sloop, esteemed it a great privilege to be the bearers of parcels or messages to my new mistress; for whenever they came, they were sure of a most kind and pleasant reception. If little Thomas was her son, and her most dearly beloved child, she, for a time, at least, made me something like his half-brother in her affections. If dear Tommy was exalted to a place on his mother's knee, "Feddy" was honored by a place at his mother's side. Nor did he lack the caressing strokes of her gentle hand, to convince him that, though _motherless_, he was not _friendless_. Mrs. Auld <112>was not only a kind-hearted woman, but she was remarkably pious; frequent in her attendance of public worship, much given to reading the bible, and to chanting hymns of praise, when alone. Mr. Hugh Auld was altogether a different character. He cared very little about religion, knew more of the world, and was more of the world, than his wife. He set out, doubtless to be--as the world goes--a respectable man, and to get on by becoming a successful ship builder, in that city of ship building. This was his ambition, and it fully occupied him. I was, of course, of very little consequence to him, compared with what I was to good Mrs.
