``Now,`` said he, ``if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him.
It was a new and spe.
It would make him discontented and unhappy.`` These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought.
As to himself, it would do him no good, but a great deal of harm.
He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.
It would forever unfit him to be a slave. ``Now,`` said he, ``if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him