themselves to be such; and, in consequence of this feeling, they sought to
treat us with the same air of authority that their father did the older
slaves.

Another evil of slavery that I felt severely about this time, was the
tyranny and abuse of the overseers. These men seem to look with an evil
eye upon children. I was once visiting a menagerie, and being struck with
the fact, that the lion was comparatively indifferent to every one around
his cage, while he eyed with peculiar keenness a little boy I had; the
keeper informed me that such was always the case. Such is true of those
human beings in the slave states, called overseers. They seem to take
pleasure in torturing the children of slaves, long before they are large
enough to be put at the hoe, and consequently under the whip.

We had an overseer, named Blackstone; he was an extremely cruel man to the
working hands. He always carried a long hickory whip, a kind of pole. He
kept three or four of these in order, that he might not at any time be
without one.

I once found one of these hickories lying in the yard, and supposing that
he had thrown it away, I picked it up, and boy-like, was using it for a
horse; he came along from the field, and seeing me with it, fell upon me
with the one he then had in his hand, and flogged me most cruelly. From
that, I lived in constant dread of that man; and he would show how much he
delighted in cruelty by chasing me from my play with threats and
imprecations. I have lain for hours in a wood, or behind a fence, to hide
from his eye.

At this time my days were extremely dreary. When I was nine years of age,
myself and my brother were hired out from home; my brother was placed with