We saw our old masters coming from Virginia, North Carolina and other parts, and seizing upon their slaves in the streets of New York, or even dragging them out of their beds. Many of the slaves had very cruel masters, so that the thoughts of returning home with them embittered life to us. For some days we lost our appetite for food and sleep departed from our eyes.

On the end of the American Revolution. Memoirs of the Life of Boston King, a Black Preacher, Written by Himself