CHAPTER I.✦

Introductory--Ancestry--The Northup Family--Birth and Parentage--Mintus Northup--Marriage with Anne Hampton--Good Resolutions--Champlain Canal--Rafting Excursion to Canada--Farming--The Violin--Cooking--Removal to Saratoga--Parker and Perry--Slaves and Slavery--The Children--The Beginning of Sorrow, 17

CHAPTER II.✦

The two Strangers--The Circus Company--Departure from Saratoga--Ventriloquism and Legerdemain--Journey to New-York--Free Papers--Brown and Hamilton--The haste to reach the Circus--Arrival in Washington--Funeral of Harrison--The Sudden Sickness--The Torment of Thirst--The Receding Light--Insensibility--Chains and Darkness, 28

CHAPTER III.✦

Painful Meditations--James H. Burch--Williams' Slave Pen in Washington--The Lackey, Radburn--Assert my Freedom--The Anger of the Trader--The Paddle and Cat-o'-nine-tails--The Whipping--New Acquaintances--Ray, Williams, and Randall--Arrival of Little Emily and her Mother in the Pen--Maternal Sorrows--The Story of Eliza, 40

CHAPTER IV.✦

Eliza's Sorrows--Preparation to Embark--Driven Through the Streets of Washington--Hail, Columbia--The Tomb of Washington--Clem Ray--The Breakfast on the Steamer--The happy Birds--Aquia Creek--Fredericksburgh--Arrival in Richmond--Goodin and his Slave Pen--Robert, of Cincinnati--David and his Wife--Mary and Lethe--Clem's Return--His subsequent Escape to Canada--The Brig Orleans--James H. Burch, 54