They both advised me to run away to the north; that i should find friends there, and that i should be free. i pretended not to be interested in what they said, and treated them as if i did not understand them; for i feared they might be treacherous. white men have been known to encourage slaves to escape, and then, to get the reward, catch them and return them to their masters. … i nevertheless remembered their advice, and from that time i resolved to run away. which of the following best describes the author’s purpose in this excerpt? entertain with stories of his youth foreshadowing of when he will escape to freedom simply to state it because it happened explicit meaning stating how naïve slaves were