当我还是个奴隶的时候,我并不能理解那些粗鲁而明显语无伦次的歌曲的深层含义。我自己也在圈子里;以致我所看见所听见的,不如外人所看见所听见的。他们讲述了一个悲惨的故事,当时我完全无法理解;这些声音响亮、悠长、深沉;他们呼吸着因极度痛苦而沸腾的灵魂的祈祷和抱怨。每一个声音都是反对奴隶制的见证,都是在祈求上帝把他们从枷锁中解救出来。听到那些狂野的音符总是使我精神沮丧,使我充满了难以言喻的悲伤。我经常发现自己在听他们的时候会流泪。即使是现在,只要一想起那些歌曲,我就会感到痛苦; and while I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already found its way down my cheek. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd's plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul,--and如果他没有这样的印象,那只是因为“他固执的心没有肉”。