ll its attendants, was revolting and shocking, to the last degree; and
when the motives of this brutal castigation are considered,--language
has no power to convey a just sense of its awful criminality. After
laying on some thirty or forty stripes, old master untied his suffering
victim, and let her get down. She could scarcely stand, when untied.
From my heart I pitied her, and--child though I was--the outrage kindled
in me a feeling far from peaceful; but I was hushed, terrified, stunned,
and could do nothing, and the fate of Esther might be mine next. The
scene here described was often repeated in the case of poor Esther, and
her life, as I knew it, was one of wretchedness.

CHAPTER VI. _Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd's Plantation_

EARLY REFLECTIONS ON SLAVERY--PRESENTIMENT OF ONE DAY BEING A
FREEMAN--COMBAT BETWEEN AN OVERSEER AND A SLAVEWOMAN--THE ADVANTAGES
OF RESISTANCE--ALLOWANCE DAY ON THE HOME PLANTATION--THE SINGING
OF SLAVES--AN EXPLANATION--THE SLAVES FOOD AND CLOTHING--NAKED
CHILDREN--LIFE IN THE QUARTER--DEPRIVATION OF SLEEP--NURSING CHILDREN
CARRIED TO THE FIELD--DESCRIPTION OF THE COWSKIN--THE ASH-CAKE--MANNER
OF MAKING IT--THE DINNER HOUR--THE CONTRAST.

The heart-rending incidents, related in the foregoing chapter, led me,
thus early, to inquire into the nature and history of slavery. _Why am I
a slave? Why are some people slaves, and others masters? Was there ever
a time this was not so? How did the relation commence?_ These were
the perplexing questions which began now to claim my thoughts, and to
exercise the weak powers of my mind, for I was still but a child,
and knew less than children of the same age in the free states. As my
questions concerning these things were only put to children a little
older, and little better informed than myself, I was not rapid in
reaching a solid footing. By some means I learned from these inquiries
that _"God, up in the sky,"_ made every body; and that he made _white_
people to be masters and mistresses, and _black_ people to be slaves.
This did not satisfy me, nor lessen my interest in the subject. I was
told, too, that God was good, and that He knew what was best for me, and
best for everybody. This was less satisfactory than the first statement;
because it came, point blank, against all my{70} notions of goodness.
It was not good to let old master cut the flesh off Esther, and make her
cry so. Besides, how did people know that God made black people to be