Fugitive slaves were rare then, and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being the first one out.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.
I WAS born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away.
Most of the slaves, who were thus unconditionally freed, returned without any solicitation to their former masters, to serve them, at stated wages; as free men. The work, which they now did, was found to better done than before.
But I now entered on my fifteenth year - a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl. My master began to whisper foul words in my ear. Young as I was, I could not remain ignorant of their import.
Being a part of '12 Years a Slave' has been one of the most profound experiences of my life.
I was an English major in college who concentrated in African-American literature and culture. So I read quite a few slave narratives and stories of escape, and I grew up in Ohio, which was a common stop on the Underground Railroad.
When I was six years old, my mother died; and then, for the first time, I learned, by the talk around me, that I was a slave.
I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.
I sedulously refrained from doing anything that would incite slaves to run away from their masters.
Now I've been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave.