out and said, now I saw this boy's horses clean last night and in the
stable, so now tell me which of you turned them out? Of course they all
denied it, then master ordered them all to go down into the meadow and
drive up the horses and clean them, me excepted; so they went and drove
them up and set to work and cleaned them. On Monday morning we all turned
out to work until breakfast, when the horn was blown, and we all repaired
to the house. Here master again demanded to know who turned the horses
loose, and when they all denied it, he tied them all up and gave them each
39 lashes. Not yet satisfied, but determined to have a confession, as was
always his custom on such occasions, he came to me and asked me which one
I had reason to suspect. My poor guilty heart already bleeding for the
suffering I had caused my fellow slaves, was now almost driven to
confession. What must I do, select another victim for further punishment,
or confess the truth and bear the consequence? My conscience now rebuked
me, like an armed man; but I happened to be one of those boys who, among
all even of my mother's children loved myself best, and therefore had no
disposition to satisfy my conscience at the expense of a very sore back,
so I very soon thought of Dick, a negro who, like Ishmael, had his hand
out against every man, and all our hands were out against him; this negro
was a lickspittle or tell-tale, as little boys call them--we could not
steal a bit of tea or sugar, or any other kind of nourishment for our
sick, or do anything else we did not want to be known, but if he got to
know it he would run and tell master or mistress, or the overseer, so we
all wanted him dead; and now I thought of him--he was just the proper
sacrifice for me to lay upon the altar of confession, so I told master I
believed that it was Dick: moreover, I told him that I had seen him in and
out of the stable on Saturday night, so master tied Dick up and gave him
39 lashes more, and washed his back down with salt and water, and told him
that at night if he did not confess, he would give him as much more; so at
night, when master went out to Dick again, he asked if he had made up his