1 He told me, if I would be happy, I must lay out no plans for the future.
2 I left without a regret, and with the highest hopes of future happiness.
3 I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness.
4 It may be that my misery in slavery will only increase my happiness when I get free.
5 It was a new and strange sight to me, brightening up my pathway with the light of happiness.
6 It was a happy moment, the rapture of which can be understood only by those who have been slaves.
7 Indeed, he advised me to complete thoughtlessness of the future, and taught me to depend solely upon him for happiness.
8 And I have the happiness to know, that several of those who came to Sabbath school learned how to read; and that one, at least, is now free through my agency.
9 I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness.
10 I went directly home, and told the story of my wrongs to Master Hugh; and I am happy to say of him, irreligious as he was, his conduct was heavenly, compared with that of his brother Thomas under similar circumstances.
11 The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.
12 It is possible, and even quite probable, that but for the mere circumstance of being removed from that plantation to Baltimore, I should have to-day, instead of being here seated by my own table, in the enjoyment of freedom and the happiness of home, writing this Narrative, been confined in the galling chains of slavery.