veowners. In a year or so dere am 'nother overseer, Mr. Sandson, and
he give me de log house and de gal to do my cookin' and sich. Dere am
war talk and we 'gins gwine to de field earlier and stayin' later. Corn
am haul off, cotton am haul off, hawgs and cattle am rounded up and haul
off and things 'gins lookin' bad. De war am on, but us don't see none of
it. But 'stead of eatin' cornbread, us eats bread out of kaffir corn and
maize. "We raises lots of okra and dey say it gwine be parch
and grind to make coffee for white folks. Dat didn't look good either.
Dat winter, 'stead of killin' three or four hundred hawgs like we allus
done befo', we only done one killin' of a hundred seventy-five, and dey
not all big ones, neither. When de meat supply runs low, Mr. Sandson
sends some slaves to kill a deer or wild hawgs or jes' any kind of game.
He never sends me in any dem bunches but I hoped he would and one day he
calls me to go and says not to go off de plantation too far, but be sho'
bring home some meat. Dis de chance I been wantin', so when we gits to
de huntin' ground de leader says to scatter out, and I tells him me and
'nother man goes north and make de circle round de river and meet 'bout
sundown. I crosses de river and goes north. I's gwine to de free
country, where dey ain't no slaves. I travels all dat day and night up
de river and follows de north star. Sev'ral times I thunk de blood
houn's am trailin' me and I gits in de big hurry. I's so tired I
couldn't hardly move, but I gits in a trot.

"I's hopin' and prayin' all de time I meets up with dat Harriet Tubman
woman. She de cullud women what takes slaves to Canada. She allus
travels de underground railroad, dey calls it, travels at night and
hides out in de day. She sho' sneaks dem out de South and I thinks she's
de brave woman.

"I eats all de nuts and kills a few swamp rabbits and cotches a few
fish. I builds de fire and goes off 'bout half a mile and hides in de
thicket till it burns down to de coals, den bakes me some fish and
rabbit. I's shakin' all de time, 'fraid I'd git cotched, but I's nearly
starve to death. I puts de rest de fish in my cap and travels on dat
night by de north star and hides in a big thicket de nex' day and along
evenin' I hears guns shootin'. I sho' am scart dis time, sho' 'nough.
I's scart to come in and scart to go out, and while I's standin' dere, I
hears two men say, 'Stick you hands up, boy. What you doin?' I says,
'Uh-uh-uh, I du