be seen going from work to
nurse their babies. Many were the heart-sighs of these sorrowing mothers
as they went to minister to their infants. Sometimes the little things
would seem starved, for the mothers could only stop their toil three
times a day to care for them. When old enough to receive it, the babies
had milk, the liquor from boiled cabbage, and bread and milk together. A
woman who was too old to do much of anything was assigned to the charge
of these babies in the absence of their mothers. It was rare that she
had any one to help her. The cries of these little ones, who were cut
off almost entirely from motherly care and protection, were
heart-rending.

The cabin used for the infants during the day was a double one, that is,
double the usual size, and was located near the great house. The cradles
used were made of boards, and were not more than two by three feet in
size. The women carried their babies in the cradles to the baby cabin in
the morning, taking them to their own cabins at night. The children
ranging in age from one to seven years were numerous, and the old woman
had them to look after as well as the babies. This was indeed a task,
and might well have taxed the strength of a younger woman. They were
always from eight to a dozen infants in the cabin. The summer season was
trying on the babies and young children. Often they would drink too much
liquor from cabbage, or too much buttermilk, and would be taken with a
severe colic. I was always called on these occasions to go with Boss to
administer medicine. I remember on one occasion a little boy had eaten
too much cabbage, and was taken with cramp colic. In a few minutes his
stomach was swollen as tight and hard as a balloon, and his teeth
clenched. He was given an emetic, put in a mustard bath and was soon
relieved. The food was too heavy for these children, and they were
nearly always in need of some medical attendance. Excessive heat, with
improper food, often brought on cholera infantum, from which the infants
sometimes died rapidly and in considerable numbers.

* * * * *

METHODS OF PUNISHMENT.

The methods of punishment were barbarous in the extreme, and so numerous
that I will not attempt to describe them all. One method was to tie the
slave to a tree, strip off his clothes, and then whip him with a
rawhide, or long, limber switches, or the terrible bull whip. Another
was to put the slave in stocks, or to buck