Book Beginnings / Friday56

"Having been born a freeman, and for more than thirty years enjoyed the blessings of liberty in a free state--and having at the end of that time been kidnapped and sold into slavery, where I remained, until happily rescued in the month of January, 1853, after a bondage of twelve years it has been suggested that an account of my life and fortunes would not be uninteresting to the public."

"Within the week she would be dead. Hard lives kill gentle women quickly there," he said bitterly. I thought of the gentle women I've known, and the toll hard times have taken...He shook his head as if shaking off sorrow and continued. "She had wasted away to nothing. An old woman I would not have recognized if I'd seen her in the street, yet there was still a beauty about her. I could see how content I would have been if things had turned out differently."