"It does a man no good to be free until he has learned how to live"

I finished this book with the kids a couple of weeks ago and I have had one of the lessons in it on my mind since. Amos Fortune was a Negro slave in the early
1700's. He was fortunate enough to have been bought by a Quaker gentleman who educated him, took care of him and later gave him his freedom. But Amos was adamant that "it does a man no good to be free until he has learned how to live." So he learned to work leather and became the best in the trade for miles. He earned enough money to buy a wife whom he loved and then she died a year later. So he earned enough money to buy another woman her freedom, she too died a year later. But he had peace in knowing they had at least one year of freedom and that they had died free. A few years later he saw another woman (Violet) and her small child. He asked the "owner" how much they would both be and saved for them. They started their life together and saved for more tools, a horse and made a makeshift home.(I think we cannot imagine how hard freedom life was for a Negro back then.) A good man was even kind enough to let them use an acre of land for free. But the time came that they wanted a real home and so they both worked hard and saved money in the iron kettle to earn a home and to buy a piece of land. When he almost had enough money he noticed a widow who was desperate and quite pathetic with her children. Compassion overcame him and he made up his mind to buy her and her children a home. Violet (his wife) knew what he was thinking and took the money and hid it. The next morning when he went to get the money to do his good deed it wasn't there. Violet argued with him that she wouldn't tell him where it was until he agreed to build them their home and quit "saving" everyone. She went on to saying, "There's a fire that burns fast the more fuel goes on it and that's shiftlessness. She is a shiftless woman and money is just so much fuel to her fire. With all the help the town gave her she never made herself any better. Her children are getting older. they're the ones to help her and help themselves too. You'll do more for them all by giving work to the boys than by giving money to Lois." (This was so powerful to me) He was upset, she was upset. They didn't speak for three days. Finally, he went to a mountain to pray, determined not to come back until he got an answer of what he should do. After some time he realized, Looking from the height made him look back over his own life. He saw, with a sudden start of realization, that just as he had come a far way up the mountain to gain its crest, so had he traveled a far way through the years to gain the point at which he stood. he still had his strength, or a good portion of it. And he had his trade. But that was all. His freedom was assured as well as that of his wife and child. Yet he owned no land, nothing they could call theirs if the chariot of death came for him soon. He thought about his family and what would happen to them when he was no longer there to care for them. He thought, Amos Fortune-a man who was landless save for the kindness of a parson-thought what a good thing it must be to own a few acres of land. To bring it to bear. To leave it better than when they came to one's hand. For land was the wealth of this new country. To have land was to have an iron kettle with money always in it. How powerful is that? My problem is that I would be just like Amos and think of other before myself. But to help yourself first...That is the key. In the words of the Master himself,"Physician, heal thyself." Just a few epiphanies of mine.