She carried the small bundle of suffering humanity to the kitchen of her
home and placed him near the big oven. When the warmth thawed the frozen
child the toes fell from his feet. "Old Missus told me I would never be
strong enough to do hard work, and she had the neighborhood shoemaker
fashion shoes too short for any body's feet but mine," said Uncle
George.

Uncle George doesn't remember why he left Missouri but the sister of
Greene Taylor brought him to Troy, Indiana. Here she learned that she
could not own a slave within the State of Indiana so she indentured the
child to a flat boat captain to wash dishes and wait on the crew of
workers.

George was so small of stature that the captain had a low table and
stool made that he might work in comfort. George's mistress received
$15,00 [TR: $15.00?] per month for the service of the boy for several
years.

From working on the flat boats George became accustomed to the river and
soon received employment as a cabin boy on a steam boat and from that
time through out the most active days of his life George Taylor Burns
was a steam-boat man. In fact he declares, "I know steamboats from wood
box to stern wheel."

"The life of a riverman is a good life and interesting things happen on
the river," says Uncle George.

Uncle George has been imprisoned in the big jail at New Orleans. He has
seen his fellow slaves beaten into insensibility while chained to the
whipping post in Congo Square at New Orleans.