an. He now lives at 323 N. Olive St., San Antonio, Texas.

"I never knowed my age till after de war, when I's set free de second
time, and then marster gits out a big book and it shows I's 25 year old.
It shows I's 12 when I is bought and $800 is paid for me. That $800 was
stolen money, 'cause I was kidnapped and dis is how it come:

"My mammy was owned by John Williams in Petersburg, in Virginia, and I
come born to her on dat plantation. Den my father set 'bout to git me
free, 'cause he a full-blooded Indian and done some big favor for a big
man high up in de courts, and he gits me set free, and den Marster
Williams laughs and calls me 'free boy.'

"Then, one day along come a Friday and that a unlucky star day and I
playin' round de house and Marster Williams come up and say, 'Delia,
will you 'low Jim walk down de street with me?' My mammy say, 'All
right, Jim, you be a good boy,' and dat de las' time I ever heared her
speak, or ever see her. We walks down whar de houses grows close
together and pretty soon comes to de slave market. I ain't seed it
'fore, but when Marster Williams says, 'Git up on de block,' I got a
funny feelin', and I knows what has happened. I's sold to Marster John
Pinchback and he had de St. Vitus dance and he likes to make he niggers
suffer to make up for his squirmin' and twistin' and he the bigges'
debbil on earth.

"We leaves right away for Texas and goes to marster's ranch in Columbus.
It was owned by him and a man call Wright, and when we gits there I's
put to work without nothin' to eat. Dat night I makes up my mind to run
away but de nex' day dey takes me and de other niggers to look at de
dogs and chooses me to train de dogs with. I's told I had to play I
runnin' away and to run five mile in any way and then climb a tree. One
of de niggers tells me kind of nice to climb as high in dat tree as I
could if I didn't want my body tore off my legs. So I runs a good five
miles and climbs up in de tree whar de branches is gettin' small.

"I sits dere a long time and den sees de dogs comin'. When dey gits
under de tree dey sees me and starts barkin'. After dat I never got
thinkin' of runnin' away.

"Time goes on and de war come along, but everything goes on like it did.
Some niggers dies, but more was born, 'cause old Pinchback sees to dat.
He breeds niggers as quick as he can, 'cause dat money for him. No one
had no say who he have for wife. But de nigger husbands wasn't de only
ones dat