older than myself in learning. I learned to spell and read; and my
appetite for knowledge increasing, my young mistress set copies for me,
and by the time the school-term was out I could spell, read, and write.

Slaves on large plantations in the South were worked in gangs, under the
general supervision of the overseer or slave-owner. The gangs were
placed under the immediate supervision of a trusty and intelligent
slave, whose duty it was to see that each hand performed his or her
allotted task, to weigh cotton during the picking season, and to direct
the slaves in their labor, and were called field superintendents or
bosses. This was my position on the plantation a short time after school
was out for the term.

For the first few days after my term at school as waiter for my young
mistresses, I was ordered into the field to pick cotton, but was shortly
placed over the hands as "boss" and cotton-weigher. Each picker had a
"stint" or daily task to perform; that is, each of them was required to
pick so many pounds of cotton, and when in default were unmercifully
whipped. I had the cotton of each hand to weigh, three times each day,
and had to keep the weights of each hand separate and correctly in my
mind and report to Wilson every night. I dare not let Wilson or any of
the slaves know that I knew anything about figures or could read or
write, for a knowledge of those rudiments of education was considered
criminal in a slave. The slaves were nearly always jealous and envious
of a "boss" of their own color, and left no pretext untried to bring a
"boss" into disrepute with the master and consequent corporal
punishment. And should I make a misstatement of the weight of any one
hand's cotton, that hand would know it. Therefore at the time I am now
writing of I had the weights of about three hundred baskets of cotton to
report to Wilson every day. This was hard mind-work for me, but I