ell Dick,
(another slave on the plantation) to come to Baltimore to him on the
following evening, and as soon as I took the note in my hand I was certain
there was a flogging in it for me, though he said nothing to me. I held
the note that night and following day, afraid to give it to Mr. Cobb, so
confident was I of what would be the result. Towards evening I began to
reason thus--If I give Cobb the note I shall be whipped; if I withhold the
note from him I shall be whipped, so a whipping appears plain in either
case. Now Dick having arranged to meet his sweetheart this night assumed
sickness, so that he could have an excuse for not meeting master at
Baltimore, and he wanted me to go instead of him. I agreed to go,
providing he would take the note I had to Mr. Cobb, as I had forgot to
give it him, to which he consented, and off I went; and I heard that when
he delivered the note to Mr. Cobb, he ordered him to go to the
whipping-post, and when he asked what he had done he was knocked down, and
afterwards put to the post and thirty-nine lashes were administered, and
failed seeing his sweetheart as well. When I arrived at Baltimore my
master and young master took their seats and I drove away without any
question until we had gone three miles, when he asked what I was doing
there that night. I very politely said Dick was not well, and I had come
in his place. He then asked me if Mr. Cobb got his note, I answered, yes,
sir. He then asked me how I felt, and I said first rate, sir. "The d---l
you do," said he. I said, yes sir. He said "nigger, did Mr. Cobb flog
you?" No sir. I have done nothing wrong. "You never do," he answered; and
said no more until he got home. Being a man who could not bear to have any
order of his disobeyed or unfulfilled, he immediately called for Mr. Cobb,
and was told he was in bed; and when he appeared, the master asked if he
got the note sent by the nigger. Mr. Cobb said "Yes." "Then why," said
master, "did you not perform my orders in the note?" "I did, sir," replied
Cobb; when the master said, "I told you to give that nigger thirty-nine
lashes," Mr. Cobb says, "So I did, sir;" when master replied, "He says you
never licked him at all." Upon which Cobb said, "He is a liar;" when my
master called for me (who had been hearing the whole dialogue at the
door), I turned on my toes and went a short distance, and I shouted with a
loud voice that I was coming, (to prevent them knowing that I had been
listeni