hiring day, he prevented me from going till he went himself and bid
for me. On the last occasion, he was detained for a little while by
other business; so I ran as quickly as I could, and got hired before
he came up.

Mr. George Furley was my next master; he employed me as a car-boy in
the Dismal Swamp; I had to drive lumber, &c. I had plenty to eat and
plenty of clothes. I was so overjoyed at the change, that I then
thought I would not have left the place to go to heaven.

Next year I was hired by Mr. John Micheau, of the same county, who
married my young mistress, one of the daughters of Mr. Grandy, and
sister of my present owner. This master gave us very few clothes, and
but little to eat. I was almost naked. One day he came into the field,
and asked why no more work was done. The older people were afraid of
him; so I said that the reason was, we were so hungry we could not
work. He went home and told the mistress to give us plenty to eat, and
at dinner-time we had plenty. We came out shouting for joy, and went
to work with delight. From that time we had food enough, and he soon
found that he had a great deal more work done. The field was quite
alive with people striving who should do most.

He hired me for another year. He was a great gambler. He kept me up
five nights together, without sleep night or day, to wait on the
gambling table. I was standing in the corner of the room, nodding for
want of sleep, when he took up the shovel and beat me with it; he
dislocated my shoulder, and sprained my wrist, and broke the shovel
over me. I ran away, and got another person to hire me.

This person was Mr. Richard Furley, who, after that, hired me at the