he
slaves were fastened together with chains. The chain was run between
them, when they had been lined up like soldiers in double file. A small
chain was attached to a Negro on the left and one to the Negro on the
right and fastened to the main chain in the center. Billy Askew was
another speculator. He lived on the corner of Salisbury and Carbarrus
Street in Raleigh. Sometimes as many as thirty slaves were carried in a
drove. They walked to Mississippi.

"My brothers and sisters are dead. Down on the plantations our houses
were built of poles daubed with mud, with a rived board (split board).
I had good beds, good clothes, and plenty to eat. We made it and we ate
it. When a slave owner treated his slaves unusually good some other
slave owner would tell him that he was raising slaves who would rise
against him. Lorenzo Franks, who owned me and my mother, was a Quaker.
He treated his slaves unusually well. He would not sell any of them.
His brother was an Iron Side Baptist preacher, and he would tell his
brother he was raising slaves who would rise against him. Franks owned
seventeen slaves, I don't know how many Stewart owned."

[HW: m p. 6] [TR: Editor indicated three paragraphs on page 6 (page 322
of the volume) should have been moved here.]

"I did farm work in slavery time. I earned no money except what we made
on patches. These patches were given to my mother by my master. We
caught birds and game, sent it to town, and sold it for money. We
caught birds and partridges in traps. Our master would bring them to
town, sell them for us, and give us the money. We had a lot of possums
and other game to eat. We got our food out of the big garden planted
for the whole shebang. My master overseered his plantation.

"We didn't think much of the poor white man. He was down on us. He was
driven to it, by the rich slave owner. The rich slave owner wouldn' let
his Negroes sociate with poor white folks. Some of the slave owners,
when a poor white man's land joined theirs and they wanted his place
would have their Negroes steal things and carry them to the poor white
man, and sell them to him. Then the slave owner, knowing where the
stuff was, (Of course the slave had to do what his master told him.)
would go and find his things at the poor white man's house. Then he
would claim it, and take out a writ for him, but he would give him a
chance. He would tell him to sell out to him, and leave, or take the
consequences. That's the