My Bondage And My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

THE VILLAGE--ITS INHABITANTS--THEIR OCCUPATION AND LOW PROPENSITIES CAPTAN(sic) THOMAS AULD--HIS CHARACTER--HIS SECOND WIFE, ROWENA--WELL MATCHED--SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER--OBLIGED TO TAKE FOOD--MODE OF ARGUMENT IN VINDICATION THEREOF--NO MORAL CODE OF FREE SOCIETY CAN APPLY TO SLAVE SOCIETY--SOUTHERN CAMP MEETING--WHAT MASTER THOMAS DID THERE--HOPES--SUSPICIONS ABOUT HIS CONVERSION--THE RESULT--FAITH AND WORKS ENTIRELY AT VARIANCE--HIS RISE AND PROGRESS IN THE CHURCH--POOR COUSIN "HENNY"--HIS TREATMENT OF HER--THE METHODIST PREACHERS--THEIR UTTER DISREGARD OF US--ONE EXCELLENT EXCEPTION--REV. GEORGE COOKMAN--SABBATH SCHOOL--HOW BROKEN UP AND BY WHOM--A FUNERAL PALL CAST OVER ALL MY PROSPECTS--COVEY THE NEGRO-BREAKER.

St. Michael's, the village in which was now my new home, compared favorably with villages in slave states, generally. There were a few comfortable dwellings in it, but the place, as a whole, wore a dull, slovenly, enterprise-forsaken aspect. The mass of the buildings were wood; they had never enjoyed the artificial adornment of paint, and time and storms had worn off the bright color of the wood, leaving them almost as black as buildings charred by a conflagration.