The next day, I get a summons to go to the small sitting room. I was expecting to find His Lordship there. But it was Her Ladyship. She was sitting in a chair, and she gave me a thoughtful look.

“His Lordship has told me about your conversation,” she said. “And I have one concern.”

“Your Ladyship?” I asked.

“Yes. By making you free, His Lordship would have no sanction against you if you were to talk. You know what I mean.” And she looked me straight in the eye. “I must protect him,” she said.

She was right, of course. His Lordship was placing himself in my power. And I admired her for saying it. So I was silent for a moment. Then I took my shirt off. I saw her eyes open wide when I did that. But then I turned round, and I heard her give a little gasp as she saw the scars on my back.

“That is what a planter did to me, Your Ladyship,” I said, “before I came here. And truth to tell, My Lady, I would kill that planter, if I could do it.”

“Oh,” she said.

“But in this house,” I continued, “I have received nothing but kindness.” And I said this with some emotion, because it was true. “And if His Lordship gives me my freedom, which I have been wanting all my life, I’d rather be whipped again than repay him with treachery.”

Well, she gave me a long look, and then she said: “Thank you, Quash.” And I put on my shirt again, and bowed to her, and left.

So that is how, in the year 1705, at around the age of fifty-five, I finally obtained my freedom. It all worked out as I expected. Jan was good to me, and helped me rent a store on Queen Street, which is a good part of the town, and he showed me how to buy the best goods; and Miss Clara was sending me so many customers that I had my hands full. Not only did I employ little Rose, but soon I had two more like her as well. Their being young, I didn’t have to pay them much, but they were glad of the regular work, and soon I was making good money.

And from this and all that went before, I learned that, if you give people what they want, it can make you free.

The following year, Her Ladyship died. And I was sorry for that. The year afterward, His Lordship’s party fell from office in London. And as soon as they learned this, all His Lordship’s enemies in New York sent urgently to London begging to have His Lordship removed from office on account of all the debts he still owed. They also said that he was dressing in women’s clothes, for those rumors were growing too—though no one ever heard any word of that from me. They even threw His Lordship in the debtors’ jail.