nothing for them.
She has no control over them; the master is even more than the mother,
in all matters touching the fate of her child. Why, then, should
she give herself any concern? She has no responsibility. Such is the
reasoning, and such the practice. The iron rule of the plantation,
always passionately and violently enforced in that neighborhood, makes
flogging the penalty of{42} failing to be in the field before sunrise in
the morning, unless special permission be given to the absenting slave.
"I went to see my child," is no excuse to the ear or heart of the
overseer.

One of the visits of my mother to me, while at Col. Lloyd's, I remember
very vividly, as affording a bright gleam of a mother's love, and the
earnestness of a mother's care.

"I had on that day offended "Aunt Katy," (called "Aunt" by way of
respect,) the cook of old master's establishment. I do not now remember
the nature of my offense in this instance, for my offenses were numerous
in that quarter, greatly depending, however, upon the mood of Aunt Katy,
as to their heinousness; but she had adopted, that day, her favorite
mode of punishing me, namely, making me go without food all day--that
is, from after breakfast. The first hour or two after dinner, I
succeeded pretty well in keeping up my spirits; but though I made
an excellent stand against the foe, and fought bravely during the
afternoon, I knew I must be conquered at last, unless I got the
accustomed reenforcement of a slice of corn bread, at sundown. Sundown
came, but _no bread_, and, in its stead, their came the threat, with a
scowl well suited to its terrible import, that she "meant to _starve
the life out of me!"_ Brandishing her knife, she chopped off the heavy
slices for the other children, and put the loaf away, muttering, all the
while, her savage designs upon myself. Against this disappointment, for
I was expecting that her heart would relent at last, I made an extra
effort to maintain my dignity; but when I saw all the other children
around me with merry and satisfied faces, I could stand it no longer. I
went out behind the house, and cried like a fine fellow! When tired of
this, I returned to the kitchen, sat by the fire, and brooded over my
hard lot. I was too hungry to sleep. While I sat in the corner, I caught
sight of an ear of Indian corn on an upper shelf of the kitchen. I
watched my chance, and got it, and, shelling off a few grains, I put
it back again. The grains in my h