I believe the answer is:
<em>After a brief period of suspense, the will of my mistress was read, and we learned that she had bequeathed me to her sister's daughter, a child of five years old. </em>
The words 'bequathed' means the act of passing ownership from one person to another. Even though the mistress is depicted as a kind owner, the fact that she can freely pass the ownership of a human being without her consent shows that the slaves simply seen as an object or property.
If the colonists are suffering, they need to first submit a petition to Parliament.
The correct one is
Somerset st.
"Yet the Lord so upheld these persons, as in this general calamity they were not at all infected either with sickness, or lameness."
"And I doubt not but their recompense is with the Lord."