_Color_, therefore, was a very unsatisfactory basis for slavery.
Once, however, engaged in the inquiry, I was not very long in finding out the true solution of the matter.

It was not _color_, but _crime_, not _God_, but _man_, that afforded the true explanation of the existence of slavery; nor was I long in finding out another important truth, viz: what man can make, man can unmake.

The appalling darkness faded away, and I was master of the subject.

There were slaves here, direct from Guinea; and there were many who could say that their fathers and mothers were stolen from Africa--forced from their homes, and compelled to serve as slaves.

This, to me, was knowledge; but it was a kind of knowledge which filled me with a burning hatred of slavery, increased my suffering, and left me without the means of breaking away from my bondage.