affected me
perniciously; that, in fact, it had almost ruined me for every good
purpose, and had fitted me for everything that was bad. One of my
greatest faults, or offenses, was that of letting his horse get away,
and go down to the farm belonging to his father-in-law. The animal had a
liking for that farm, with which I fully sympathized. Whenever I let it
out, it would go dashing down the road to Mr. Hamilton's, as if going
on a grand frolic. My horse gone, of course I must go after it. The
explanation of our mutual attachment to the place is the same; the
horse found there good pasturage, and I found there plenty of bread. Mr.
Hamilton had his faults, but starving his slaves was not among them. He
gave food, in abundance, and that, too, of an excellent quality. In
Mr. Hamilton's cook--Aunt Mary--I found a most generous and considerate
friend. She never allowed me to go there without giving me bread
enough{158} to make good the deficiencies of a day or two. Master Thomas
at last resolved to endure my behavior no longer; he could neither keep
me, nor his horse, we liked so well to be at his father-in-law's farm. I
had now lived with him nearly nine months, and he had given me a number
of severe whippings, without any visible improvement in my character, or
my conduct; and now he was resolved to put me out--as he said--"_to be
broken._"

There was, in the Bay Side, very near the camp ground, where my master
got his religious impressions, a man named Edward Covey, who enjoyed
the execrated reputation, of being a first rate hand at breaking young
Negroes. This Covey was a poor man, a farm renter; and this reputation
(hateful as it was to the slaves and to all good men) was, at the same
time, of immense advantage to him. It enabled him to get his farm tilled
with very little expense, compared with what it would have cost him
without this most extraordinary reputation. Some slaveholders thought it
an advantage to let Mr. Covey have the government of their slaves a year
or two, almost free of charge, for the sake of the excellent training
such slaves got under his happy management! Like some horse breakers,
noted for their skill, who ride the best horses in the country without
expense, Mr. Covey could have under him, the most fiery bloods of the
neighborhood, for the simple reward of returning them to their owners,
_well broken_. Added to the natural fitness of Mr. Covey for the duties
of his profession, he was said to "en