mpression of my slave life, without unnecessarily
affecting him with harrowing details.

As I have elsewhere intimated that my hardships were much greater during
the first six months of my stay at Covey's, than during the remainder
of the year, and as the change in my condition was owing to causes which
may help the reader to a better understanding of human nature, when
subjected to the terrible extremities of slavery, I will narrate the
circumstances of this{173} change, although I may seem thereby
to applaud my own courage. You have, dear reader, seen me humbled,
degraded, broken down, enslaved, and brutalized, and you understand how
it was done; now let us see the converse of all this, and how it was
brought about; and this will take us through the year 1834.

On one of the hottest days of the month of August, of the year just
mentioned, had the reader been passing through Covey's farm, he might
have seen me at work, in what is there called the "treading yard"--a
yard upon which wheat is trodden out from the straw, by the horses'
feet. I was there, at work, feeding the "fan," or rather bringing wheat
to the fan, while Bill Smith was feeding. Our force consisted of Bill
Hughes, Bill Smith, and a slave by the name of Eli; the latter having
been hired for this occasion. The work was simple, and required strength
and activity, rather than any skill or intelligence, and yet, to one
entirely unused to such work, it came very hard. The heat was intense
and overpowering, and there was much hurry to get the wheat, trodden out
that day, through the fan; since, if that work was done an hour before
sundown, the hands would have, according to a promise of Covey, that
hour added to their night's rest. I was not behind any of them in the
wish to complete the day's work before sundown, and, hence, I struggled
with all my might to get the work forward. The promise of one hour's
repose on a week day, was sufficient to quicken my pace, and to spur me
on to extra endeavor. Besides, we had all planned to go fishing, and I
certainly wished to have a hand in that. But I was disappointed, and
the day turned out to be one of the bitterest I ever experienced. About
three o'clock, while the sun was pouring down his burning rays, and not
a breeze was stirring, I broke down; my strength failed me; I was seized
with a violent aching of the head, attended with extreme dizziness, and
trembling in every limb. Finding what was coming, and feeling it