II IS CHILDHOOD AND EARLY HOME. 21 



VL a holiday proved to be a blunder, or a story fabricated 

 for the occasion ; and the next day the matter was inquired 

 into, and some punishments were inflicted ; but I believe 

 the boys of Holland Hill escaped what we all deserved. 

 Indeed, I do not remember that the ferule was ever ap 

 plied to my hand, or the rod to my back. 



Of the situation of his mother after his father's 

 death, he speaks as follows : 



That bereavement brought upon our mother a world of 

 trouble ; and it was in that crisis that she was obliged to 

 decide the question whether my brother and myself should 

 receive a public education, my age being eleven years 

 wanting eighteen days, and my brother's thirteen years 

 wanting three months and five days. 



There was a very considerable property in land, with 

 farming implements, carts, carriages, horses and cattle, 

 including cows, oxen, sheep, and swine ; but the establish 

 ment was unproductive without labor. I regret to record 

 that there were slaves, some slaves by purchase, others 

 by descent, or slaves born under our roof. Our northern 

 country was not then as fully enlightened as now regarding 

 human freedom ; there were house-slaves in the most 

 respectable families, even in those of clergymen in the now 

 free States ; and those who fought for their country, of 

 whom our father was one, did not appear to have felt their 

 own inconsistency. Under our roof, or roofs, (for there was 

 a distinct building for the black servants,) there were, at 

 the time of my father's death, about a dozen negroes, young 

 and old, including those who were occasionally there from 

 their connection with ours. Among them were two mar- 



o 



ried pairs, and their children swelled the list of consumers, 

 but not of producers. The mothers served in the kitchen 

 and the laundry, and the older girls and boys were waiters. 

 Some of the older boys worked on the land. The prin 

 cipal man, Tego, (a corruption from Antigua, from which 



