night,
and, for safe keeping, was put into what was called the calaboose. This
was especially for the keeping of slaves who had run away and been
caught. Word was sent to Boss of my capture; and the next morning
Thomas Bland, a fellow servant of mine, was sent to take me home. I can
not tell how I felt, for the only thought that came to me was that I
should get killed. The madam met us as we drove into the yard. "Ah!" she
said to me, "you put up at the wrong hotel, sir." I was taken to the
barn where stocks had been prepared, beside which were a cowhide and a
pail of salt water, all prepared for me. It was terrible, but there was
no escape. I was fastened in the stocks, my clothing removed, and the
whipping began. Boss whipped me a while, then he sat down and read his
paper, after which the whipping was resumed. This continued for two
hours. Fastened as I was in the stocks, I could only stand and take lash
after lash, as long as he desired, the terrible rawhide cutting into my
flesh at every stroke. Then he used peach tree switches, which cracked
the flesh so the blood oozed out. After this came the paddle, two and a
half feet long and three inches wide. Salt and water was at once applied
to wash the wounds, and the smarting was maddening. This torture was
common among the southern planters. God only knows what I suffered under
it all, and He alone gave me strength to endure it. I could hardly move
after the terrible ordeal was finished, and could scarcely bear my
clothes to touch me at first, so sore was my whole body, and it was
weeks before I was myself again.

* * * * *

PREACHING TO THE SLAVES.

As an offset, probably, to such diabolical cruelties as those which were
practiced upon me in common with nearly all the slaves in the cotton
region of the south, it was the custom in the section of country where I
lived to have the white minister preach to the servants Sunday
afternoon, after the morning service for the whites. The white people
hired the minister by the year to preach for them at their church. Then
he had to preach to each master's slaves in turn. The circuit was made
once a month, but there was service of some kind every Sunday. The
slaves on some places gathered in the yard, at others in the white
folks' school houses, and they all seemed pleased and eager to hear the
word of God. It was a strong evidence of their native intelligence and
discrimination that they could di