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It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free.

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man

At times I would rise up, a flash of energetic freedom would dart through my soul, accompanied with a faint beam of hope, that flickered for a moment, and then vanished.

The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness.

The strength of our determination was about to be fully tested.

At times we were almost disposed to give up, and try to content ourselves with our wretched lot; at others, we were firm and unbending in our determination to go.

To make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one

The moral which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder.

Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.

The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work.

From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.

Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by which he can trace the footprints of our flying brother.

The responsibility of success or failure lay heavily upon me.

My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact.

I had the grief of neglected chances of escape to brood over

Brothers and sisters we were by blood; but slavery had made us strangers.

Once awakened by the silver trump of knowledge, my spirit was roused to eternal wakefulness.

A man's troubles are always half disposed of, when he finds endurance his only remedy.

Slavery does away with fathers, as it does away with families.

The absolute power of this distant old master had touched my young spirit with but the point of its cold, cruel iron, and left me something to brood over after the play and in moments of repose.

To balance probabilities, where life and liberty hang on the result, requires steady nerves.

To enslave men successfully and safely it is necessary to keep their minds occupied with thoughts and aspirations short of the liberty of which they are deprived.

The hardships and dangers involved in the struggle give strength and toughness to the character, and enable it to stand firm in storm as well as in sunshine.

The plea for this outrage was then, as it is always, the tyrant's plea of necessity.

Liberty, as the inestimable birthright of every man, converted every object into an asserter of this right.