“Well, he took it, and held it out, and says he, ‘Why, nigger, that’s a better coat than I ever had on my back, you cuss—you;’ and at that he took it, and flung it on the floor in rage. I picks it up, and hands it to ‘Lecta, and she puts it in her chist. I had the pleasure of wearing that coat one Sunday more, and then ☞ he took it, and wore it out himself! ☜
“The gals says, ‘Why, father, how can you take away that coat?’
“‘Shet your heads, or you’ll git a tunin’.’
“‘Well, father, but how ’twill look—and what will Mr. Tucker’s folks think of you?’
“‘Shet your dam heads, or I’ll take away the rest of his clothes; for he’s a struttin’ about here as big as a meetin’ house. I’ll do as I please with my nigger’s things! ☞ He’s my property!! ☜ It’s a dam pity if my nigger’s things don’t belong to me!’[[4]] ☜
[4]. And with the same propriety, might he say, that his nigger’s soul belonged to him; or, if he possessed salvation by Christ, that his title to heaven belonged to him. With such premises, he could logically prove that he could kill his slave, and do no wrong, as he would innocently kill his ox, or other property. Here we see the legitimate and necessary inference of this barbarous, inhuman and wicked position, that it is right, under certain circumstances, to own property in man. A man is not safe, as long as he acknowledges this right; for if he believes it ever can exist, he will exercise it as soon as circumstances are favorable, and become one of the most barbarous and abandoned of slaveholders in an hour.]
“Now, Mr. L——, he robbed me of myself, then of my money, and then of my clothes, that a good man gin me for savin’ his darter’s life. Now you see what mean, means.
“One day, arter this, I met Mr. Tucker in the road, and says he, ‘Well, Peter, how do you git along?’ ‘Oh! Sir, well ’nough; only master has took my clothes away you gin me, and is a wearin’ them out himself.’
“‘What!’ says he, ‘not them clothes I gin you?’
“‘Oh! yis, Sir; and I thinks it’s cruel to me, and insultin’ you most distressedly.’