CHAPTER IV.

Start out on my Travels to Hunt a New Master--Find Mr. Dansley--Hire to
Him--Thirty Dollars per Month for my Master and Five Dollars for
Myself--Wilson Astonished--Appointed Superintendent of Dansley's
Farm--Rules and Regulations--Peace and Tranquillity--My Moral Labors
Successful--Prayer and Social Meetings--Meetings in the Woods--Quarrel
and Fight like very Brothers--Time comes to be Moved to Another Field of
Labor.


It was customary in the slave states to allow slaves to hire themselves
for their masters to such as the slaves themselves desired to work for.
Sometimes this arrangement was made to save the master trouble. In my
case I was instructed to find a place to work at thirty dollars per
month and board, and then to return and report to Wilson, who would then
give the necessary permission in writing, which would stand as a
contract between him and my employer.

My first object was to find a Christian man to hire to who would allow
me to pray and preach on all proper occasions, and who would rather
assist me than hinder me in my efforts to make Christians of the
blacks. I cared nothing for the manual labor I had to do, if I could
only be placed in a position to do my great Master's work. His work was
my life-labor. On this particular account I was very careful who I
applied to. In a day or two I applied to Mr. Dansley, whose plantation