When a spare moment occurred I sat down to study, and so absorbed was I in the attempt to blunder through my lesson, that I did not hear the Captain's son-in-law coming until he was fairly upon me.

He sprang forward, caught my poor old spelling book, and threw it into the fire, where it was burned to ashes; and then came my turn.

He gave me first a severe flogging, and then swore if he ever caught me with another book, he would "whip every inch of skin off my back," &c.
This treatment, however, instead of giving me the least idea of giving it up, only made me look upon it as a more valuable attainment.

Else, why should my oppressors feel so unwilling that their slaves should possess that which they thought so essential to themselves?
Even then, with my back bleeding and smarting from the punishment I had received, I determined to learn to read and write, at all hazards, if my life was only spared.

About this time Capt.