It most froze me to hear such talk. He wouldn’t ever dared to talk such talk in his life before. Just see what a difference it made in him the minute he judged he was about free. It was according to the old saying, “Give a n***** an inch and he’ll take an ell.” Thinks I, this is what comes of my not thinking. Here was this n*****, which I had as good as helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would steal his children – children that belonged to a man I didn’t even know; a man that hadn’t ever done me no harm.
– Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 16. As they near the clear waters of the Ohio, Huck is shocked when Jim is gripped by freedom fever and even talks about stealing his children out of slavery. Children that Huck says “belonged” to another man.