I grew up to manhood in the presence of this hydra headed monster--not as a master--not as an idle spectator--not as the guest of the slaveholder--but as A SLAVE, eating the bread and drinking the cup of slavery with the most degraded of my brother-bondmen, and sharing with them all the painful conditions of their wretched lot.

In consideration of these facts, I feel that I have a right to speak, and to speak _strongly_.

Yet, my friends, I feel bound to speak truly.
Goading as have been the cruelties to which I have been subjected--bitter as have been the trials through which I have passed--exasperating as have been, and still are, the indignities offered to my manhood--I find in them no excuse for the slightest departure from truth in dealing with any branch of this subject.
First of all, I will state, as well as I can, the legal and social relation of master and slave.

A master is one--to speak in the vocabulary of the southern states--who claims and exercises a right of property in the person of a fellow-man.

This he does with the force of the law and the sanction of southern religion.