had his class he would let my brother come in. He taught him to
read and write too. He learned to read and write real well and the
teacher said he was the smartest one in the class. Marster passed our
window one night and heard him readin'. The next mornin' he called him
over to the house and fooled him into readin' and writin', told him he
had somethin' he wanted him to do if he could read and write good
enough. My brother read everythin' marster give him and wrote with a
pencil and ink pen. Marster was so mad that he could read and write
better than his own boy that he beat him, took him away from the
academy, and put him to work in the blacksmith shop. Marster wouldn't
let him wear no shoes in the shop 'cause he wanted the hot cinders to
fall on his feet to punish him. When the man in charge of the shop told
marster he wouldn't work my brother unless he had on shoes, he bought
some brogans that he knowed he couldn't wear, and from then on he made
him do the hardest kind of work he could think of.

"My marster never whipped us himself. He had a coachman do all the
whippin' and he stood by to see that it was done right. He whipped us
until we was blistered and then took a cat-o-nine-tails and busted the
blisters. After that he would throw salty water on the raw places. I
mean it almost gave you spasms. Whenever they sent you to the courthouse
to be whipped the jail keeper's daughter give you a kick after they put
you in the stocks. She kicked me once and when they took me out I sho
did beat her. I scratched her everwhere I could and I knowed they would
beat me again, but I didn't care so long as I had fixed her."

One ex-slave "belonged to an old lady who was a widow. This lady was
very good to me. Of course most people said it was 'cause her son was my
father. But she was just good to all of us. She did keep me in the house
with her. She knowed I was her son's child all right. When I married, I
still stayed with my mistress 'til she died. My husband stayed with his
marster in the day time and would come and stay with me at night.

"When my mistress died I had to be sold. My husband told me to ask his
marster to buy me. He didn't want me to belong to him because I would
have to work real hard and I hadn't been use to no hard work, but he was
so afraid somebody would buy me and carry me somewhere way off, 'til he
decided it was best for his marster to buy me. So his marster bought me
and give me and my husband to his