“If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not learning.”

There might be some higher power, children, but it’s not their white God.

There were those slaves who claimed a distinction between good masters and cruel masters. Most of us considered such to be distinction without difference. I

“Never speak first,” a girl said.

“Lawdy, missum! Looky dere.” “Perfect,” I said. “Why is that correct?” Lizzie raised her hand. “Because we must let the whites be the ones who name the trouble.”

“White folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don’t disappoint them,”

“Lawdy, missum! Looky dere.” “Perfect,” I said. “Why is that correct?” Lizzie raised her hand. “Because we must let the whites be the ones who name the trouble.”

At that moment the power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from them. They couldn’t even know if I was merely seeing them or reading them, sounding them out or comprehending them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely

“Never address any subject directly when talking to another slave,”