And you are an ass to let your family starve to assuage your own vanity.
Some things are worth dying for, freedom for example. Getting back to the subject of this post, many of those ex slaves suffered terribly after being given their freedom. Many suffered privations their entire life. But for all that, in all those slave narratives I would defy you to find a single one where the slave said that they wished they had remained a slave. Some things are just that important.