“Now all these things is what keeps us so much in the back ground; for if we have a chance, we git up in the world as fast as any body. For there _is_ smart and respectable colored folks; and you sarch out their history, and you’ll find that they once had a good chance to git larnin’, and they jumped arter it. I think one of the greatest things the abolition folks should be arter, is to help the free people of color to git up in the world, and grow respectable, and educated, and then we will prove false what our enemies say, ‘that we are better off in chains than we be in freedom.’”
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Beginning of sea stories—sails with Captain Truesdell for the West-Indies—feelings on leaving the American shore—sun-set at sea—shake hands with a French frigate—a storm—old Neptune—a bottle or a shave—caboose—Peter gets two feathers in his cap—St. Bartholomews—climate—slaves—oranges—turtle—a small pig, “but dam’ old”—weigh anchor for New York—“sail ho!”—a wreck—a sailor on a buoy—get him aboard—his story—gets well, and turns out to be an enormous swearer—couldn’t draw a breath without an oath—approach to New York—quarantine—pass the Narrows—drop anchor—rejoicing times—Peter jumps ashore “a free nigger.”
_Author._ “Where do you hail from to day, Peter?”
_Peter._ “From the street, where I’ve found some folks that makes me feel bad.”
P. “Why, there’s some folks that feels envious and flings this in my face—’Oh! you’ve got to be a mighty big nigger lately, han’t ye? and you’re agoin’ to have your life wrote.’ And this comes principally from people of my own colour, only now and then a white person flings in somethin’ to make it go glib; but the white folk round here generally treat me very kindly.”
A. “Well, don’t revenge yourself, Peter; bear it like a man and a christian. Now let us launch out on the deep.”
P. Well, we’ll weigh anchor,—but it won’t do for me to tell every thing that happened to me in my sea v’iges, for ‘twould fill fifty books; and so I’ll only tell some things that always seemed to please folks more’n the rest:
I followed the North River all that summer I run away, and in the fall of that year Captain John Truesdell sold his sloop and engaged to go out to sea as master of a large vessel for a company of New York merchants.