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_Religious Nature Awakened_.
ABOLITIONISTS SPOKEN OF--MY EAGERNESS TO KNOW WHAT THIS WORD MEANT--MY CONSULTATION OF THE DICTIONARY--INCENDIARY INFORMATION--HOW AND WHERE DERIVED--THE ENIGMA SOLVED--NATHANIEL TURNER'S INSURRECTION--THE CHOLERA--RELIGION--FIRST AWAKENED BY A METHODIST MINISTER NAMED HANSON--MY DEAR AND GOOD OLD COLORED FRIEND, LAWSON--HIS CHARACTER AND OCCUPATION--HIS INFLUENCE OVER ME--OUR MUTUAL ATTACHMENT--THE COMFORT I DERIVED FROM HIS TEACHING--NEW HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS--HEAVENLY LIGHT AMIDST EARTHLY DARKNESS--THE TWO IRISHMEN ON THE WHARF--THEIR CONVERSATION--HOW I LEARNED TO WRITE--WHAT WERE MY AIMS.
Whilst in the painful state of mind described in the foregoing chapter, almost regretting my very existence, because doomed to a life of bondage, so goaded and so wretched, at times, that I was even tempted to destroy my own life, I was keenly sensitive and eager to know any, and every thing that transpired, having any relation to the subject of slavery.

I was all ears, all eyes, whenever the words _slave, slavery_, dropped from the lips of any white person, and the occasions were not unfrequent when these words became leading ones, in high, social debate, at our house.

Every little while, I could hear Master Hugh, or some of his company, speaking with much warmth and excitement about _"abolitionists."_ Of _who_ or _what_ these were, I was totally ignorant.

I found, however, that whatever they might be, they were most cordially hated and soundly abused by slaveholders, of every grade.