court house every year till my master came of age. He gave me a pass
to work for myself; so I obtained work by the piece where I could, and
paid him out of my earnings what we had agreed on; I maintained myself
on the rest, and saved what I could. In this way I was not liable to
be flogged and ill used. He paid seventy, eighty, or ninety dollars a
year for me, and I paid him twenty or thirty dollars a year more than
that.

When my master came of age, he took all his colored people to himself.
Seeing that I was industrious and persevering, and had obtained plenty
of work, he made me pay him almost twice as much as I had paid Mr.
Furley. At that time the English blockaded the Chesapeake, which made
it necessary to send merchandise from Norfolk to Elizabeth City by the
Grand Canal, so that it might get to sea by Pamlico Sound and Ocracock
Inlet. I took some canal boats on shares; Mr. Grice, who married my
other young mistress, was the owner of them. I gave him one half of
all I received for freight; out of the other half I had to victual and
man the boats, and all over that expense was my own profit.

Some time before this, my brother Benjamin returned from the West
Indies, where he had been two years with his master's vessel. I was
very glad to hear of it, and got leave to go see him. While I was
sitting with his wife and him, his wife's master came and asked him to
fetch a can of water; he did so, and carried it into the store. While
I was waiting for him, and wondering at his being so long away, I
heard the heavy blows of a hammer: after a little while I was
alarmed, and went to see what was going on. I looked into the store,
and saw my brother lying on his back on the floor, and Mr. Williams,
who had bought him, driving staples over his wrists and ankles; an
iron bar was afterwards put across his breast, which was also held