



Produced by Judy Boss





STEP BY STEP

OR

TIDY'S WAY TO FREEDOM.


                    "Woe to all who grind
                    Their brethren of a common Father down!
                    To all who plunder from the immortal mind
                    Its bright and glorious crown!"
                    --WHITTIER.

[colophon omitted]

Published By The

American Tract Society,

28 Cornhill, Boston.


Transcriber's Note: I have removed page numbers; all italics
are emphasis only. I have omitted running heads and have closed
contractions, e.g. "she's" becoming "she's"; in addition, on page
180, stanza 3, line 1, I have changed the single quotation mark at the
beginning of the line to a double quotation mark.


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by THE AMERICAN
TRACT SOCIETY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the
District of Massachusetts.

Riverside, Cambridge:

Stereotyped And Printed By H. O. Houghton.




CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE


         I.  INTRODUCTION......   5
        II.  THE BABY.....   13
       III.  SUNSHINE.....   24
        IV.  SEVERAL EVENTS....   36
         V.  A NEW HOME.....   43
        VI.  BEGINNINGS OF KNOWLEDGE.   50
       VII.  FRANCES.....   62
      VIII.  PRAYER.....   75
        IX.  THE FIRST LESSON....   87
         X.  LONY'S PETITION.....   95
        XI.  ROUGH PLACES.....  105
       XII.  A GREAT UNDERTAKING..  112
      XIII.  A LONG JOURNEY....  127
       XIV.  CRUELTY.....  137
        XV.  COTTON.....  147
       XVI.  RESCUE.....  154
      XVII.  TRUE LIBERTY....  165
     XVIII.  CROWNING MERCIES...  174


OLD DINAH JOHNSON.....




STEP BY STEP.



CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.

MY DEAR CHILDREN,--All of you who read this little book have doubtless
heard more or less of slavery. You know it is the system by which a
portion of our people hold their fellow-creatures as property, and doom
them to perpetual servitude. It is a hateful and accursed institution,
which God can not look upon but with abhorrence, and which no one of
his children should for a moment tolerate. It is opposed to every thing
Christian and humane, and full of all meanness and cruelty. It treats a
fellow-being, only because his skin is not so fair as our own, as
though he were a dumb animal or a piece of furniture. It allows him
no expression of choice about any thing, and no liberty of action. It
recognizes and employs all the instincts of the lower, but ignores and
tramples down all the faculties of his higher, nature. Can there be a
greater wrong?

It is said by some, in extenuation of this wrong, that the slaves are
well fed and clothed, and are kindly, even affectionately, looked
after. This is true, in some cases,--with the house-servants,
particularly,--but, as a general thing, their food and clothing are
coarse and insufficient. But supposing it was otherwise; supposing they
were provided for with as much liberality as are the working classes at
the North, what is that when put into the balance with all the ills they
suffer? What comfort is it, when a wife is torn from her husband, or a
mother from her children, to know that each is to have enough to eat?
None at all. The most generous provision for the body can not satisfy
the longings of the heart, or compensate for its bereavements.

They suffer, also, a constant dread and fear of change, which is not
the least of their torturing troubles. A kind owner may be taken away by
death, and the new one be harsh and cruel; or necessity may compel
him to sell his slaves, and thus they may be thrown into most unhappy
situations. So they live with a heavy cloud of sorrow always before
them, which their eyes can not look through or beyond. There is no
hope--no EARTHLY hope--for this poor, oppressed race.

Their minds, too, are starved. No education, not even the least, is
allowed. It is a criminal offense in some of the States