And unfortunately for me, I am the father of a slave, a word too obnoxious to be spoken by a fugitive slave.

It calls fresh to my mind the separation of husband and wife; of stripping, tying up and flogging; of tearing children from their parents, and selling them on the auction block.

It calls to mind female virtue trampled under foot with impunity.

But oh! when I remember that my daughter, my only child, is still there, destined to share the fate of all these calamities, it is too much to bear.

If ever there was any one act of my life while a slave, that I have to lament over, it is that of being a father and a husband of slaves.