again to buy myself, and that they had already got $1,200 from me. My
wife[1] (this was my second wife) belonged to Mr. Sawyer; he told me
that her master would not allow me to go to see her, if I would not
consent to what he now proposed; for any colored person going on the
grounds of a white man, after being warned off, is liable to be
flogged, or even shot. I thus found myself forced to go, although no
colored man wishes to live at the house where his wife lives, for he
has to endure the continual misery of seeing her flogged and abused,
without daring to say a word in her defence.

In the service of Mr. Sawyer, I got into a fair way of buying myself
again; for I undertook the lightering of shingles or boards out of the
Dismal Swamp, and hired hands to assist me. But my master had become
security for his two sons-in-law at Norfolk, who failed; in
consequence of which he sold eighteen colored people, his share of the
Swamp, and two plantations. I was one of the slaves he kept, and after
that had to work in the corn-field the same as the rest. The overseer
was a bad one; his name was Brooks. The horn was blown at sunrise; the
colored people had then to march before the overseer to the field, he
on horseback. We had to work, even in long summer days, till twelve
o'clock, before we tasted a morsel, men, women, and children all being
served alike. At noon the cart appeared with our breakfast. It was in
large trays, and was set on the ground. There was bread, of which a
piece was cut off for each person; then there was small hominy boiled,
that is, Indian-corn, ground in the hand-mill, and besides this two
herrings for each of the men and women, and one for each of the
children. Our drink was the water in the ditches, whatever might be
its state; if the ditches were dry, water was brought to us by the
boys. The salt fish made us always thirsty, but no other drink than
water was ever allowed. However thirsty a slave may be, he is not