Incidents in the life of a slave girl.: Written by herself. Edited by L. Maria Child.

96 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
threats, if he was not careful about his future behavior.
As the months passed on, my boy improved in health.
When he was a year old, they called him beautiful.
The little vine was taking deep root in my existence,
though its clinging fondness excited a mixture of love
and pain. When I was most sorely oppressed I found
a solace in his smiles. I loved to watch his infant
slumbers; but always there was a dark cloud over my
enjoyment. I could never forget that he was a slave.
Sometimes I wished that he might die in infancy. God
tried me. AIy darling became very ill. The bright
eyes grew dull, and the little feet and hands were so
icy cold that I thought death had already touched
them. I had prayed for his death, but never so earnestly as I now prayed for his life; and my prayer was
heard. Alas, what mockery it is for a slave mother
to try to pray back her dying child to life! Death is
better than slavery. It was a sad thought that I had
no name to give my child. IHis father caressed him
and treated himl kindly, whenever he had a chance to
see him. He was not unwilling that hlie should bear
his name; but he had no legal claim to it; and if I
had bestowed it upon him, my master would have regarded it as a new crime, a new piece of i'isolence,
and would, perhaps, revenge it on the boy. 0, the
serpent of Slavery has many and poisonous fanigs!