run away a bird flew in front of him and led him all the way to the
West. Understand me, I am not saying that is strictly so, but that is
what I heard old folks say, when I was young. When darkies wanted to get
news to their girls or wives on other plantations and didn't want Marse
George to know about it, they would wait for a dark night and would tie
rags on their feet to keep from making any noise that the paterollers
might hear, for if they were caught out without a pass, that was
something else. Paterollers would go out in squads at night and whip any
darkies they caught out that could not show passes. Adam Angel was a
great big man, weighing about 200 pounds, and he slipped out one night
without a pass. When the paterollers found him, he was at his girl's
place where they were out in the front yard stewing lard for the white
folks. They knew he didn't belong on that plantation, so they asked him
to show his pass. Adam didn't have one with him, and he told them so.
They made a dive for him, and then, quick as a flash, he turned over
that pot of boiling lard, and while they were getting the hot grease off
of them he got away and came back to his cabin. If they had caught Adam,
he would have needed some of that spilt grease on him after the beating
they would have give him. Darkies used to stretch ropes and grapevines
across the road where they knew paterollers would be riding; then they
would run down the road in front of them, and when they got to the rope
or vine they would jump over it and watch the horses stumble and throw
the paterollers to the ground. That was a favorite sport of slaves.

"After the darkies got in from the field at night, ate their supper, and
finished up the chores for the day, on nights when the moon shone bright
the men would work in their own cotton patches that Marse George allowed
them; the women used their own time to wash, iron, patch, and get ready
for the next day, and if they had time they helped the men in their
cotton patches. They worked straight on through Saturdays, same as any