One bad sheep will spoil a whole flock.

Among the slaves, I was a bad sheep.

I hated slavery, slaveholders, and all pertaining to them; and I did not fail to inspire others with the same feeling, wherever and whenever opportunity was presented.

This made me a marked lad among the slaves, and a suspected one among the slaveholders.

A knowledge of my ability to read and write, got pretty widely spread, which was very much against me.
The days between Christmas day and New Year's, are allowed the slaves as holidays.