killing another person was also handled by the master who might hang him
to a tree by the feet or by the neck, as he saw fit.

Few slaves ever attempted to escape from Mr. Brown, partially because of
his kindliness and partically because of the fear inspired by the pack
of blood hounds which he kept. When an escaped slave was caught he was
returned to his master and a sound beating was administered.

As far as marriage was concerned on the Brown estate, Mr. Brown, himself
placed every two individuals together that he saw fit to. There was no
other wedding ceremony. If any children were born from the union, Mr.
Brown named them. One peculiarity on the Brown estate was the fact that
the slaves were allowed no preference or choice as to who his or her
mate would be. Another peculiarity was these married couples were not
permitted to sleep together except when the husband received permission
to spend the night with his wife. Ward is the father of 17 children
whose whereabouts he does not know.

At this point Ward began to smile, and when he was asked the cause of
his mirth, he replied that he was thinking about his fellow slaves
beliefs in conjuring one another. This was done by putting some sort of
wild berries in the person's food. What he can't understand is why some
of this black magic was not tried on the white people since they were
holding the Negroes as slaves.

Ward recalls vividly Sherman's march through Georgia. When Sherman
reached the present site of Hapeville, he bombarded Atlanta with cannon,
afterwards marching through and burning the city. The white residents
made all sorts of frantic attempts to hide their money and other
valuables. Some hiding places were under stumps of trees and in sides of