The man asked me numerous and various questions, as to where I came
from, where I was going, who I belonged to, etc.

I again sinned, and paid the penalty. I lied to the man. I told him I
belonged to a man by the name of Potts, and that I was going to his
plantation.

Quite a number of persons soon gathered around me, and by repeated
questions entrapped me. Inquiries were made as to the health of Mr.
Potts' family, and of Mr. Potts in particular. I stated that the family
were well and that Mr. Potts was as well as usual.

It turned out that several of the persons present knew the Potts family,
and that Mr. Potts had died two months previously.

I was immediately arrested and placed in a secure place, tied and
chained to the floor.

Thus sin brought me into trouble. Had I trusted to God and not been in
too great haste to get something to eat, he would have helped me. My
weakness made me forget that I should not lie to any one, seeing that I
had put off the old man with his deeds. In my great need of
strengthening food, Christ would have succored me had I not forgotten to
pray to him and ask his help, for "a man can receive nothing except it
be given him from heaven."

In nearly all the villages of the South, and on most of the large
plantations, were slave-jails, where runaway and refractory slaves were
incarcerated. These jails were usually a double pen, the inside pen