e chillen tried,
but of course we would git careless sometimes.

"The master had a 'black snake'--some called it a 'bull whip,' and he
knew how to use it. He whipped, but I don' 'member now whether he
brought any blood on me, but he cut the blood outta the grown ones. He
didn' tie 'em, he always had a whippin' block or log to make 'em lay
down on. They called 500 licks a 'light breshin,' and right on your
naked back, too. They said your clothes wouldn' grow but your hide
would. From what I heered say, if you run away, then was when they give
you a whippin,' prob'bly 1500 or 2000 licks. They'd shore tie you down
then, 'cause you couldn' stan' it. Then you'd have to work on top of all
that, with your shirt stickin' to your back.

"The overseer woke us up. Sometimes he had a kin' of horn to blow, and
when you heered that horn, you'd better git up. He would give you a good
whippin' iffen he had to come and wake you up. He was the meanest one on
the place, worse'n the boss man.

"The boss man had a nice rock house, and the women didn' work at all.

"I never did see any slaves auctioned off, but I heered of it. My boss
he would take 'em there and sell 'em.

"They had a church this side of New Fountain and the boss man 'lowed us
to go on Sunday. If any of the slaves did join, they didn' baptize them,
as I know of.

"When one of the slaves would die, they would bury 'em on the land
there. Reg'lar little cemetery there. Oh, yes, they would have doctors
for 'em. If anybody died, they would tell some of the other slaves to
dig the grave and take 'em out there and bury 'em. They jes' put 'em in
a box, no preachin' or nothin.' But, of course, if it was Sunday the
slaves would follow out there and sing. No, if they didn' die on Sunday,
you couldn' go; you went to that field.

"If you wanted to go to any other plantation you had to git a pass to go
over there, and if you didn' and got caught, you got one of the worst
whippins'. If things happened and they wanted to tell 'em on other
plantations, they would slip out at night and tell 'em.

"We never heered much about the fightin' or how it was goin.' When the
war finally was over, our old boss called us all up and had us to stand
in abreast, and he stood on the gallery and he read the verdict to 'em,
and said, 'Now, you can jes' work on if you want to, and I'll treat you
jes' like I always did.' I guess when he said that they knew what he
meant. The' wasn't but one family left