, if they had my old mistess would have raised
sand with 'em. Whenever I was whipped my mother did it. I warn't no
slave and my ma neither, but my pa was.

"When they whipped you they would strap you down in them stocks, then a
man would wind the whippin' machine and beat you 'til they had given you
the number of lashes your boss had on the note. I didn't see them
whippin' any women there, so I can't say they did and I can't say they
didn't.

"My master wouldn't let us go to school, but his chillun would slip
'round and teach us what they could out of their books. They would also
give us books to read. Whenever their pa or ma caught them tryin' to
teach us they always whipped them. I learned to read and write from 'em
and I'll never forget how hard it was for 'em to get a chance to teach
me. But if they caught you tryin' to write they would cut your finger
off and if they caught you again they would cut your head off.

"When I was a young man, a old man stole the head and pluck (pluck is
the liver and lites) out of the hog (some people call it the haslet) and
hid it up in the loft of his house. When his marster missed it he went
to this man's house lookin' for it. The man told him that he didn't have
it. He had already told his wife if his marster come not to own it
either. Well his master kept askin' him over and over 'bout the head and
pluck, but they denied having it. The marster told 'em if they didn't
give it to him and that quick he was goin' to give 'em a thousand lashes
each, if less didn't kill 'em. This woman's husband told her not to own
it. He told her to take three thousand lashes and don't own it. So their
marster whipped her and whipped her, but she wouldn't own it. Finally he
quit whippin' her and started whippin' the old man. Just as soon as he
started whippin' the man he told his wife to go up in the loft of the
house and throw the head and pluck down 'cause he didn't want it.

"You always had to get a pass when goin' out. Sometimes, when you
wouldn't be thinking, a patter roller would step up to the door and ask
who was there. If any visitor was there they would ask 'em to show their
pass. If you didn't have a pass they would take you out and beat you,
then make you go home and when you got home, your marster would take you
to the barn, strip you buck naked, tie you to a post and beat you. Us
didn't have to get passes whenever us wanted to go visitin'. All us had
to do was tell 'em who us belonged