to my new home. Upon arrival her manner changed very much, and
she took me down to where there was a bunch of men burning brush. She
said, "see those men" I said: yes. Well, go help them, she replied. So
at the age of six I started my life as an independent slave. From then
on my life as a slave was a repetition of hard work, poor quarters and
board. We had no beds at that time, we just "bunked" on the floor. I had
one blanket and manys the night I sat by the fireplace during the long
cold nights in the winter.

"My Mistress had separated me from all my family but one brother with
sweet words, but that pose was dropped after she reached her place.
Shortly after I had been there, she married a northern man by the name
of David Hill. At first he was very nice to us, but he gradually
acquired a mean and overbearing manner toward us, I remember one
incident that I don't like to remember. One of the women slaves had been
very sick and she was unable to work just as fast as he thought she
ought to. He had driven her all day with no results. That night after
completeing our work he called us all together. He made me hold a light,
while he whipped her and then made one of the slaves pour salt water on
her bleeding back. My innerds turn yet at that sight.

"At the beginning of the Civil War I was still at this place as a slave.
It looked at the first of the war as if the south would win, as most of
the big battles were won by the South. This was because we slaves stayed
at home and tended the farms and kept their families.

"To eliminate this solid support of the South, the Emancipation Act was
passed, freeing all slaves. Most of the slaves were so ignorant they did
not realize they were free. The planters knew this and as Kentucky never
seceeded from the Union, they would send slaves into Kentucky from other
states in the south and hire them out to plantations. For these reasons
I did not realize that I was free untill 1864. I immediately resolved to
run away and join the Union Army and so my brother and I went to
Owensburg, Ky. and tried to join. My brother was taken, but I was
refused as being too young. I [HW: tried] at Evansville, Terre Haute and
Indianapolis but was unable to get in. I then tried to find work and was
finally hired by a man at $7.00 a month. That was my first independent
job. From then on I went from one job to another working as general
laborer.

"I married at 24 years of age and had four children. My w