f up to
rest a moment, and without knowing that he was there, my eye caught his.
This threw him into a panic of rage; he would have it that I was watching
him. "What are you rolling your white eyes at me for, you lazy rascal?" He
came down upon me with his cane, and laid on over my shoulders, arms, and
legs, about a dozen severe blows, so that my limbs and flesh were sore for
several weeks; and then after several other offensive epithets, left me.

This affair my mother saw from her cottage, which was near; I being one of
the oldest sons of my parents, our family was now mortified to the lowest
degree. I had always aimed to be trustworthy; and feeling a high degree of
mechanical pride, I had aimed to do my work with dispatch and skill, my
blacksmith's pride and taste was one thing that had reconciled me so long
to remain a slave. I sought to distinguish myself in the finer branches of
the business by invention and finish; I frequently tried my hand at making
guns and pistols, putting blades in penknives, making fancy hammers,
hatchets, sword-canes, &c., &c. Besides I used to assist my father at
night in making straw-hats and willow-baskets, by which means we supplied
our family with little articles of food, clothing and luxury, which slaves
in the mildest form of the system never get from the master; but after
this, I found that my mechanic's pleasure and pride were gone. I thought
of nothing but the family disgrace under which we were smarting, and how
to get out of it.

Perhaps I may as well extend this note a little. The reader will observe
that I have not said much about my master's cruel treatment; I have aimed
rather to shew the cruelties incident to the system. I have no disposition
to attempt to convict him of having been one of the most cruel
masters--that would not be true--his prevailing temper was kind, but he
was a perpetualist. He was opposed to emancipation; thought free negroes a
great nuisance, and was, as respects discipline, a thorough slaveholder.
He would not tolerate a look or a word from a slave like insubordination.
He would suppress it at once, and at any risk. When he thought it
necessary to secure unqualified obedience, he would strike a slave with
any weapon, flog him on the bare back, and sell. And this was the kind of
discipline he also empowered his overseers and sons to use.

I have seen children go from our plantations to join the chained-gang on
its way from Washington to Louisiana; an