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  "title": "The History of Mary Prince",
  "slug": "the-history-of-mary-prince",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince/the-history-of-mary-prince",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince/the-history-of-mary-prince.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince/the-history-of-mary-prince.md",
  "author": {
    "name": "Mary Prince",
    "slug": "mary-prince",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince"
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  "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin-classics/mary-prince/the-history-of-mary-prince_978-01-4043-749-2.jpg",
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      "slug": "we-followed-my-mother",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince/the-history-of-mary-prince/we-followed-my-mother",
      "text": "We followed my mother to the market-place, where she placed us in a row against a large house, with our backs to the wall and our arms folded across our breasts. I, as the eldest, stood first, Hannah next to me, then Dinah; and our mother stood beside, crying over us. My heart throbbed with grief and terror so violently, that I pressed my hands quite tightly across my breast, but I could not keep it still, and it continued to leap as though it would burst out of my body. But who cared for that? Did one of the many bystanders, who were looking at us so carelessly, think of the pain that wrung the hearts of the negro woman and her young ones? No, no! They were not all bad, I dare say, but slavery hardens white people's hearts towards the blacks; and many of them were not slow to make their remarks upon us aloud, without regard to our grief—though their light words fell like cayenne on the fresh wounds of our hearts. Oh those white people have small hearts who can only feel for themselves.",
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        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Prince#The_History_of_Mary_Prince_(1831)",
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      "slug": "i-then-saw",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince/the-history-of-mary-prince/i-then-saw",
      "text": "I then saw my sisters led forth, and sold to different owners; so that we had not the sad satisfaction of being partners in bondage. When the sale was over, my mother hugged and kissed us, and mourned over us, begging of us to keep up a good heart, and do our duty to our new masters. It was a sad parting; one went one way, one another, and our poor mammy went home with nothing.",
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      "slug": "it-was-night",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince/the-history-of-mary-prince/it-was-night",
      "text": "It was night when I reached my new home. The house was large and built at the bottom of a very high hill; but I could not see much of it that night. I saw too much of it afterward. The stones and the timber were the best things in it; they were not so hard as the hearts of the owners.",
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      "slug": "i-was-soon",
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      "text": "I was soon surrounded by strange men, who examined and handled me in the same manner that a butcher would a calf or a lamb he was about to purchase, and who talked about my shape and size in like words—as if I could no more understand their meaning than the dumb beasts. I was then put up for sale. The bidding commenced at a few pounds, and gradually rose to fifty seven, when I was knocked down to the highest bidder; and the people who stood by said that I had fetched a great sum for so young a slave.",
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      "slug": "in-telling-my-own",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince/the-history-of-mary-prince/in-telling-my-own",
      "text": "In telling my own sorrows, I cannot pass by those of my fellow-slaves—for when I think of my own griefs, I remember theirs.",
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      "slug": "i-am-often",
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      "text": "I am often much vexed, and I feel great sorrow when I hear some people in this country say, that the slaves do not need better usage, and do not want to be free. They believe the foreign people, who deceive them, and say slaves are happy. I say, Not so. How can slaves be happy when they have the halter round their neck and the whip upon their back? and are disgraced and thought no more of than beasts?—and are separated from their mothers, and husbands, and children, and sisters, just as cattle are sold and separated?",
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      "page": 22,
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      "text": "I was not permitted to see my mother or father, or poor sisters and brothers, to say good bye, though going away to a strange land, and might never see them again. Oh the Buckra people who keep slaves think that black people are like cattle, without natural affection. But my heart tells me it is far otherwise.",
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      "slug": "the-poor-slaves",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-prince/the-history-of-mary-prince/the-poor-slaves",
      "text": "The poor slaves had built up a place with boughs and leaves, where they might meet for prayers, but the white people pulled it down twice, and would not allow them even a shed for prayers.",
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