was among them, though small; but I had become so attached to the horses
that they could get no work out of me, so they began to whip me, but
every time they whipped me I would leave the field and run home to the
barn-yard.

Finally mistress engaged a very bad man as overseer, in place of old Ben
Usome, whose name was William Turner. Two or three days after his
arrival he took me into the field and whipped me until I was sick, so I
went home.

I went to mistress and told her that the overseer had whipped me; she
asked if I had done the work that he had given me. I told her that
master had promised me that, when I got too heavy to ride race horses,
he would send me to learn the carpenter's trade; she asked me if, in
case she put me to a trade, I would work, and I told her I would. So she
consented.

But the overseer did not like the idea of having me work at the trade
which was my choice. He said to mistress, "That is the worst thing you
can do, madam, to allow a negro to have his choice about what he shall
do. I have had some experience as an overseer for many years, and I
think I am able to give a correct statement about the nature of negroes
in general. I know a gentleman who allowed his negroes to have their own
way about things on his plantation, and the result was that they got as
high as their master. Besides that, madam, their influence rapidly
spreads among the neighbors, and if such should be allowed, South
Carolina would have all masters and mistresses, and no servants; and, as
I have said, I know somewhat about the nature of negroes; I notice,
madam, that this boy will put you to a great deal of trouble unless you
begin to subdue him now while he is young. A very few years' delay will