And notwithstanding I was deeply interested while standing on the deck of the steamer looking at the beauties of nature on either side of the river, as she pressed her way up the stream, my very soul was pained to look upon the slaves in the fields of Kentucky, still toiling under their task-masters without pay.

It was on this soil I first breathed, the free air of Heaven, and felt the bitter pangs of slavery--it was here that I first learned to abhor it.

It was here I received the first impulse of human rights--it was here that I first entered my protest against the bloody institution of slavery, by running away from it, and declared that I would no longer work for any man as I had done, without wages.
When the steamboat arrived at Portsmouth, Ohio, I took off my trunk with the intention of going to Canada.

But my funds were almost exhausted, so I had to stop and go to work to get money to travel on.
I hired myself at the American Hotel to a Mr.McCoy to do the work of a porter, to black boots, &c, for which he was to pay me $12 per month.

I soon found the landlord to be bad pay, and not only that, but he would not allow me to charge for blacking boots, although I had to black them after everybody had gone to bed at night, and set them in the bar-room, where the gentlemen could come and get them in the morning while I was at other work.