slaves by their
masters and finally the Emancipation by Abraham Lincoln she tells in
this order.

The first event tells of a young, strong healthy Negro woman who
knew her work and did it well. "She would grab up two bags of
guana (fertilizer) and tote 'em at one time," said Irene, and was never
found shirking her work. The overseer on the plantation, was very hard
on the slaves and practiced striking them across the back with a whip
when he wanted to spur them on to do more work.

Irene says, one day a crowd of women were hoeing in the field and the
overseer rode along and struck one of the women across the back with the
whip, and the one nearest her spoke and said that if he ever struck her
like that, it would be the day he or she would die. The overseer heard
the remark and the first opportunity he got, he rode by the woman and
struck her with the whip and started to ride on. The woman was hoeing at
the time, she whirled around, struck the overseer on his head with the
hoe, knocking him from his horse, she then pounced upon him and chopped
his head off. She went mad for a few seconds and proceeded to chop and
mutilate his body; that done to her satisfaction, she then killed his
horse. She then calmly went to tell the master of the murder, saying
"I've done killed de overseer," the master replied--"Do you mean to say
you've killed the overseer?" she answered yes, and that she had killed
the horse also. Without hesitating, the master pointing to one of his
small cabins on the plantation said--"You see that house over there?"
she answered yes--at the same time looking--"Well" said he, "take all
your belongings and move into that house and you are free from this day
and if the mistress wants you to do anything for her, do it if you want
to." Irene related with much warmth the effect that incident had upon
the future treatment of the slaves.

The other incident occured in Virginia. It was upon an occasion when
Mrs. Abraham Lincoln was visiting in Richmond. A woman slaveowner had
one of her slaves whipped in the presence of Mrs. Lincoln. It was
easily noticed that the woman was an expectant mother. Mrs. Lincoln was
horrified at the situation and expressed herself as being so, saying
that she was going to tell the President as soon as she returned to the
White House. Whether this incident had any bearing upon Mr. Lincoln's
actions or not, those slaves who were present and Irene says that they
all believed it to be the b