thataway. Slaves weah whipt and punished and the younguns belonged to
the mahstah to work foah him oh to sell. When I weah 'bout six yeahs
old, Mahstah Everett give me to Tony Eubanks as a weddin' present when
he married mahstah's daughtah Becky. Becky would'n let Tony whip her
slaves who came from her fathah's plantation. 'They ah my prophty,' she
say, 'an' you caint whip dem.' Tony whipt his othah slaves but not
Becky's."

"I remembah" he continued, "how they tied de slave 'round a post, wit
hands tied togedder 'round the post, then a husky lash his back wid a
snakeskin lash 'til hisn back were cut and bloodened, the blood
spattered" gesticulating with his unusually large hands, "an' hisn back
all cut up. Den they'd pouh salt watah on hem. Dat dry and hahden and
stick to hem. He nevah take it off 'till it heal. Sometimes I see
marhstah Everett hang a slave tip-toe. He tie him up so he stan' tip-toe
an' leave him thataway.

"I be twenty-one wehn wah broke out. Mahstah Eubanks say to me, 'Yohall
don' need to run 'way ifn yohall want to jine up wid de ahmy.' He say,
'Deh would be a fine effin slaves run off. Yohall don' haf to run off,
go right on and I do not pay dat fine.' He say, ''nlist in de ahmy but
don' run off.' Now I walk thirty-five mile from Glasgow to Bowling Green
to dis place--to da 'nlistin' place--from home fouh mile--to Glasgow--to
Bowling Green, thirty-five mile. On de road I meet up with two boys, so
we go on. Dey run 'way from Kentucky, and we go together. Then some
Bushwackers come down de road. We's scared and run to the woods and hid.
As we run tru de woods, pretty soon we heerd chickens crowing. We fill
ouah pockets wit stones. We goin' to kill chickens to eat. Pretty soon
we heerd a man holler, 'You come 'round outta der'--and I see a white
man and come out. He say, 'What yoh all doin' heah?' I turn 'round and