GEORGE THOMPSON.

_9, Blandford Place, Regent's Park_,
_October 18th, 1842._

NARRATIVE.

My name is Moses Grandy. I was born in Camden county, North Carolina.
I believe I am fifty-six years old. Slaves seldom know exactly how old
they are; neither they nor their masters set down the time of a birth;
the slaves, because they are not allowed to write or read, and the
masters, because they only care to know what slaves belong to them.

The master, Billy Grandy, whose slave I was born, was a hard-drinking
man; he sold away many slaves. I remember four sisters and four
brothers; my mother had more children, but they were dead or sold away
before I can remember. I was the youngest. I remember well my mother
often hid us all in the woods, to prevent master selling us. When we
wanted water, she sought for it in any hole or puddle formed by
falling trees or otherwise. It was often full of tadpoles and insects.
She strained it, and gave it round to each of us in the hollow of her
hand. For food, she gathered berries in the woods, got potatoes, raw
corn, &c. After a time, the master would send word to her to come in,
promising he would not sell us. But, at length, persons came who
agreed to give the prices he set on us. His wife, with much to be
done, prevailed on him not to sell me; but he sold my brother, who was
a little boy. My mother, frantic with grief, resisted their taking her
child away. She was beaten, and held down; she fainted; and, when she
came to herself, her boy was gone. She made much outcry, for which the
master tied her up to a peach-tree in the yard, and flogged her.

Another of my brothers was sold to Mr. Tyler, Dewan's Neck, Pasquotank
county. This man very much ill treated many colored boys. One very
cold day, he sent my brother out, naked and hungry, to find a yoke of
steers; the boy returned without finding them, when his master flogged
him, and sent him out again. A white lady, who lived near, gave him
food, and advised him to try again; he did so, but, it seems, again
without success. He piled up a heap of leaves, and laid himself down
in them, and died there. He was found through a flock of turkey
buzzards hovering over him; these birds had pulled his eyes out.

My young master and I used to play together; there was but two days'
difference in our ages. My old master always said he would give me to
him. When he died, all the colored people were divided amongst his