MumBet's character was
composed of few & strong
elements. Action was the law of her nature, as
it is of all superior natures, & conscious of
superiority to all around her a state of servitude
was intolerable. It was not the work, work
was play to her. Her power of execution was
marvellous. Nor was it awe of her kind master,
or fear of her despotic mistress, but it was
the galling of the harness, the irrepressible
longing for liberty. I have often heard her
say with an emphatic shake of the head
peculiar to her, "Any time, any time while
I was a slave, if one minute's freedom had
been offered to me & I had been told I
must die at the end of that minute I
would have taken it -- just to stand one
minute on God's aarth a free woman --
-- I would"