I, too, was thus exercised.

I had little pleasure{210} in retrospect, and the prospect was not very brilliant.

"Notwithstanding," thought I, "the many resolutions and prayers I have made, in behalf of freedom, I am, this first day of the year 1836, still a slave, still wandering in the depths of spirit-devouring thralldom.

My faculties and powers of body and soul are not my own, but are the property of a fellow mortal, in no sense superior to me, except that he has the physical power to compel me to be owned and controlled by him.

By the combined physical force of the community, I am his slave--a slave for life." With thoughts like these, I was perplexed and chafed; they rendered me gloomy and disconsolate.
The anguish of my mind may not be written.
At the close of the year 1835, Mr.Freeland, my temporary master, had bought me of Capt.