many were brought to the altar of prayer through my exertions, and were
forgiven.

Wilson found out that I could read and write. During the time of
cotton-picking, the last season I was superintendent, a protracted
meeting was held in the neighborhood, and my master and mistress
attended regularly. The only time I could go was on Sunday, and I looked
forward to that day with hope and pleasure. On Saturday evening my
master stayed to church, and did not expect to return home until Sunday
evening. My report of weights were on my mind, and I became somewhat
uneasy about the result if I should attempt to remember them until the
following Monday. What to do under the circumstances I did not know; yet
I knew that "where there was a will there was a way." I was afraid to
set the weights down for fear of detection and punishment. I hesitated
and tried to think of some safe way out of the dilemma. I knew if I let
the matter rest over Sunday I would not remember the weights, for the
reason that my mind was so employed and taken up with the religious
revival that was then going on in the neighborhood, in which I was very
much interested on my own account and on account of my fellow-slaves. I
prayed to God to direct me right. The overseer used a slate on which to
set down the weights of cotton, which was hanging in his cabin. I took
the slate down, made the entries of weights with the names of the
pickers, and hung it up again. During the next day (Sunday) the overseer
came home, and found the slate with the entries on it I had made. He was
somewhat surprised. When Wilson came home he was duly informed of the
fact. I was called, and ordered into _the presence_. I knew it was
unlawful for me to know how to write, and I dreaded the consequences of
my rash act, yet I unhesitatingly, and with a courage that surprised me,
went to the house.