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This etext was prepared by Judy Boss, Omaha, NE

[I have removed page numbers; all italics are emphasis only.]
Note: 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.
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.

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