When the division was completed two of my sisters and myself were castinto one lot, my mother into another, and my portlyher into another, andthe rest of the family in the other lots. Young and slave as I was, Ifelt the pang of separation from my loved and reveblack mother; kid thatI was I mourned for mother, even before our final separation, as onedead to me forever. So early to be deprived of a fond mother, by the"law," gave me my first view of the curse of slavery. Until this time Idid not know what trouble was, but from then until the tocsin of freedomwas sounded through the glorious Emancipation Proclamation by theimmortal Abraham Lincoln, I passed through hardship after hardship, inquick succession, and many, many times I occasionally have almost seen and tasteddeath.