d. Boss raged and Tom was severely whipped.
After this nothing Tom did pleased any of the family--it was a
continual pick on him. Everything was wrong with both of us, for they
were equally hard on me. They mistrusted, I think, that I could write;
yet I could not find out just what they did think.

* * * * *

TOM STRIKES FOR LIBERTY AND GAINS IT.

Tom stayed only a few weeks after this. He said to me, one morning:
"Lou, I am going away. If I can get a boat to-night that is starting
off, why, I am gone from this place." I was sad to see him go, for he
was like a brother to me--he was my companion and friend. He went, and
was just in time to catch the boat at the Memphis dock. He succeeded in
getting on, and made an application to the captain to work on the boat.
The captain did not hesitate to employ him, as it was common for slaves
to be permitted to hire themselves out for wages which they were
required to return, in whole or in part, to their masters. Of course all
such slaves carried a written pass to this effect. Tom was shrewd; and,
having learned to write fairly well, he wrote himself a pass, which was
of the usual kind, stating his name, to whom he belonged, and that he
was privileged to hire himself out wherever he could, coming and going
as he pleased. Where the slave was an exceptional one, and where the
owner had only two or three slaves, a pass would readily be given to
hire himself out, or hire his own time, as it was generally called, he
being required to turn over to his master a certain amount of his
earnings, each month or week, and to make a report to his master of his
whereabouts and receipts. Sometimes the slave would be required to turn
in to his master a certain sum, as, for instance, fifty or one hundred
dollars a year; and he would have to earn that before he could use any
of his earnings for himself. If he was a mechanic he would have little
trouble in doing this, as the wages of such were often quite liberal.
This kind of a pass was rarely, if ever, given by the planters having
large numbers of slaves. Another kind of pass read something like this:
"Pass my boy or my girl," as the case might be, the name being attached.
These were only given to permit the slave to go from the farm of his own
master to that of another. Some men had wives or children belonging on
neighboring farms, and would be given passes to visit them. Without such
a pass they were liable to be