But taking place at the time it did, and for the reason that it did, no one could ever make me believe that my mother was guilty of thieving.

She was simply a victim of the system of slavery.

I cannot remember having slept in a bed until after our family was declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation.

Three children--John, my older brother, Amanda, my sister, and myself--had a pallet on the dirt floor, or, to be more correct, we slept in and on a bundle of filthy rags laid upon the dirt floor.
I was asked not long ago to tell something about the sports and pastimes that I engaged in during my youth.

Until that question was asked it had never occurred to me that there was no period of my life that was devoted to play.