Mary; her father and mother were in the field at the time. He killed,
also, a boy about twelve years old. He had no punishment, or even
trial, for either.

There was no dinner till dark, when he gave the order to knock off and
go home. The meal then was the same as in the morning, except that we
had meat twice a week.

On very few estates are the colored people provided with any bedding:
the best masters give only a blanket; this master gave none; a board,
which the slave might pick up any where on the estate, was all he had
to lie on. If he wished to procure bedding, he could only do so by
working at nights. For warmth, therefore, the negroes generally sleep
near a large fire, whether in the kitchen, or in their log huts; their
legs are often in this way blistered and greatly swelled, and
sometimes badly burnt: they suffer severely from this cause.

When the water-mill did not supply meal enough, we had to grind with
the hand-mill. The night was employed in this work, without any thing
being taken from the labor of the day. We had to take turn at it,
women as well as men; enough was to be ground to serve for the
following day.

I was eight months in the field. My master, Mr. Sawyer, agreed to
allow me eight dollars a month, while so employed, towards buying
myself; it will be seen he did not give me even that. When I first
went to work in the corn-field, I had paid him $230 towards this third
buying of my freedom. I told him, one night, I could not stand his
field work any longer; he asked, why; I said I was almost starved to
death, and had long been unaccustomed to this severe labor. He wanted