ated her exceedingly well,
and she served him faithfully; but it was not long before she was
claimed by a person to whom Culpepper had mortgaged her before he sold
her to Johnson. This person sold her to Long, of Elizabeth City, where
again she was very badly treated. After a time, this person sold her
to go to Georgia: she was very ill at the time, and was taken away in
a cart. I hear from her sometimes, and am very anxious to purchase her
freedom, if ever I should be able. Two of her children are now in
North Carolina, and are longing to obtain their freedom. I know
nothing of the others, nor am I likely ever to hear of them again.

The treatment of slaves is mildest near the borders, where the free
and slave states join: it becomes more severe, the farther we go from
the free states. It is more severe in the west and south than where I
lived. The sale of slaves most frequently takes place from the milder
to the severer parts: there is great traffic in slaves in that
direction, which is carried on by the speculators. On the frontier
between the slave and free States there is a guard; no colored person
can go over a ferry without a pass. By these regulations, and the
great numbers of patrols, escape is made next to impossible.

Formerly slaves were allowed to have religious meetings of their own;
but after the insurrection which I spoke of before, they were
forbidden to meet even for worship. Often they are flogged if they are
found singing or praying at home. They may go to the places of worship
used by the whites; but they like their own meetings better. My wife's
brother Isaac was a colored preacher. A number of slaves went
privately into a wood to hold meetings; when they were found out, they
were flogged, and each was forced to tell who else was there. Three
were shot, two of whom were killed and the other was badly wounded.
For preaching to them, Isaac was flogged, and his back pickled; when
it was nearly well, he was flogged and pickled again, and so on for
some months; then his back was suffered to get well, and he was sold.
A little while before this, his wife was sold away with an infant at
her breast; and out of six children, four had been sold away by one at
a time. On the way with his buyers he dropped down dead; his heart was
broken.

Having thus narrated what has happened to myself, my relatives and
near friends, I will add a few matters about slaves and colored people
in general.

Slaves are under