house away," he
says.

There was always a great amount of whipping on this plantation. This was
practically the only form of punishment used. Most of them were whipped
for being disobedient or for being unruly. Mr. Womble has heard his
master say that he would not have a slave that he could not rule and to
be sure that the slaves held him and his family in awe he even went so
far as to make all of them go and pay their respects to the newly born
white children on the day after their birth. At such a time they were
required to get in line outside of the door and then one by one they
went through the room and bowed their heads as they passed the bed and
uttered the following words: "Young Marster" or if the baby was a girl
they said: "Young Mistress". On one occasion Mr. Womble says that he has
seen his master and a group of other white men beat an unruly slave
until his back was raw and then a red hot iron bar was applied to his
back. Even this did not make the slave submissive because he ran away
immediately afterwards. After this inhuman treatment any number of the
slaves ran away, especially on the Ridley plantation. Some were caught
and some were not. One of the slaves on the Womble plantation took his
wife and ran away. He and his wife lived in a cave that they found in
the woods and there they raised a family. When freedom was declared and
these children saw the light of day for the first time they almost went
blind stated Mr. Womble.

Mr. Womble says that he himself has been whipped to such an extent by
his master, who used a walking cane, that he had no feeling in his legs.
One other time he was sent off by the master and instead of returning
immediately he stopped to eat some persimmons. The master came upon him
at the tree and started beating him on the head with a wagon spoke. By
the time he reached the house his head was covered with knots the size
of hen eggs and blood was flowing from each of them.

The slaves on the Womble plantation seldom if ever came in contact with
the "Paddle-Rollers" who punished those slaves who had the misfortune to
be caught off of their plantations without passes. In those days the
jails were built for the white folks because the masters always punished
the slaves when they broke any of the laws exclaimed Mr. Womble.

Several years before the war Mr. Wombly was sold to Mr. Jim Wombly, the
son of Mr. Enoch Wombly. He was as mean as his father or meaner, Mr.
Wombly says that th