have a pass, they would whip him. My father
was out once and was stopped by them. They struck him. When my father
got back home, he told Colonel Dortch and Colonel Dortch went after
them pateroles and laid the law down to them--told them that he was
ready to kill 'em.

"The pateroles got after a slave named Ben Holmes once and run him
clean to our place. He got under the bed and hid. But they found him
and dragged him out and beat him.

Work

"I had three aunts in the field. They could handle a plow and roll
logs as well as any man. Trees would blow down and trees would have to
be carried to a heap and burned.

"I been whipped many a time by my mistress and overseer. I'd get
behind with my work and he would come by and give me a lick with the
bull whip he carried with him.

"At first when the old folks cut wood, me and Viney would pick up
chips and burn up brush. We had to pick dry peas in the fall after the
crops had been gathered. We picked two large basketsful a day.

"When we got larger we worked in the field picking cotton and pulling
corn as high as we could reach. You had to pull the fodder first
before you could pull the corn. When we had to come out of the field
on account of rain, we would go to the corn crib and shuck corn if we
didn't have some weaving to do. We got so we could weave and spin.
When master caught us playing, he would set us to cutting jackets. He
would give us each two or three switches and we would stand up and
whip each other. I would go easy on Viney but she would try to cut me
to pieces. She hit me so hard I would say, 'Yes suh, massa.' And she
would say, 'Why you sayin' "Yes suh, massa," to me? I ain't doin'
nothin' to you.'

"My mother used to say that Lincoln went through the South as a beggar
and found out everything. When he got back, he told the North how
slavery was ruining the nation. He put different things before the
South but they wouldn't listen to him. I heard that the South was the
first one to fire a shot.

"Lemme tell you how freedom came. Our master came out where we was
grubbing the ground in front of the house. My father was already in
Little Rock where they were trying to make a soldier out of him.
Master came out and said to mother, 'Martha, they are saying you are
free but that ain't goin' to las' long. You better stay here. Reuben
is dead.'

"Mother then commenced to fix up a plan to leave. She got the oxen
yoked up twice, but when she went to hunt th