Slave Sales

"Have I seen slaves sold! Good God, man! I have seed them sold in
droves. I have worn a buck and gag in my mouth for three days for trying
to run away. I couldn't eat nor drink--couldn't even catch the slobber
that fell from my mouth and run down my chest till the flies settled on
it and blowed it. 'Scuse me but jus' look at these places. (She pulled
open her waist and showed scars where the maggots had eaten in--ed.)


Whippings

"I been whipped from sunup till sundown. Off and on, you know. They whip
me till they got tired and then they go and res' and come out and start
again. They kept a bowl filled with vinegar and salt and pepper settin'
nearby, and when they had whipped me till the blood come, they would
take the mop and sponge the cuts with this stuff so that they would hurt
more. They would whip me with the cowhide part of the time and with
birch sprouts the other part. There were splinters long as my finger
left in my back. A girl named Betty Jones come over and soaped the
splinters so that they would be softer and pulled them out. They didn't
whip me with a bull whip; they whipped me with a cowhide. They jus'
whipped me 'cause they could--'cause they had the privilege. It wasn't
nothin' I done; they just whipped me. My married young master, Joe, and
his wife, Jennie, they was the ones that did the whipping. But I
belonged to Miss Evelyn.

"They had so many babies 'round there I couldn't keep up with all of
them. I was jus' a young girl and I couldn't keep track of all them