ard-of in Lindsey's youth, he used to watch
carefully whenever a cow was skinned and its hide tanned to make shoes
for the women and the 'folks in the big house'. Through his attention to
the tanning operations he learned everything about tanning except one
solution that he could not discover. It was not until years later that
he learned that the jealously-guarded ingredient was plain salt and
water. By the time he had learned it, however, he had so mastered the
tanning operations that he at once added it to his sources of
livelihood.

Lindsey escaped much of the farm work on the Overtree place by learning
to skillfully assist the women who made cloth out of the cotton from the
fields. He grew very fast at cleaning 'rods', clearing the looms and
other operations; when, at thirteen, it became time for him to pick
cotton he had become so fast at helping with spinning and weighing the
cotton that others had picked that he almost entirely escaped the
picking himself.

Soap-making was another of the plantation arts that Lindsey mastered
early. His ability to save every possible ounce of grease from the meats
he cooked added many choice bits of pork to his otherwise meatless fare;
he was able to spend many hours in the shade pouring water over oak
ashes that other young slaves were passing picking cotton or hoeing
potatoes in the burning sun.

Lindsey's first knowledge of the approach of freedom came when he heard
a loud brass band coming down the road toward the plantation playing a
strange, lively tune while a number of soldiers in blue uniforms marched
behind. He ran to the front gate and was ordered to take charge of the
horse of one of the officers in such an abrupt tone until he 'begin to
shaking in my bare feet! There followed much talk between the officers
and Lindsey's mistress, with the soldiers finally going into encampment
a short distance away from the plantation.

The soldiers took command of the spring that was used for a water supply
for the plantation, giving Lindsey another opportunity to make money. He
would be sent from the plantation to the spring for water, and on the
way back would pass through the camp of the soldiers. These would be
happy to pay a few pennies for a cup of water rather than take the long
hike to the Spring themselves; Lindsey would empty bucket after bucket
before finally returning to the plantation. Out of his profits he bought
his first pair of shoes--though nearly a grown man.