louisa picquet, the octoroon: or inside views of - Negro Artist

Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon 11
Q.--"Around your shoulders, or how?"
A.--"That day he did."
Q.--"How were you dressed--with thin clothes, or how?"
A.--"Oh, very thin; with low-neck'd dress. In the summer-time we never wore
but two pieces--only the one under, and the blue homespun over. It is a striped
cloth they make in Georgia just for the colored people. All the time he was
whippin' me I kept sayin' I forgot it, and promisin' I would come another time."
Q.--"Did he whip you hard, so as to raise marks?"
A.--"Oh yes. He never whip me in his life but what he leave the mark on, I was
dressed so thin. He kept asking me, all the time he was whippin' me, if I
intended to mind him. Of course I told him I would, because I was gettin' a
whippinAt the same time, I did not mean to go to his room; but only did it so
that he would stop whippin' me. He want to know what I was afraid of--if I
could not sleep as well there as any where else? Of course I told him, yes, sir;
and that I wan't afraid of any thing. At the same time, I was afraid of him but I
wouldn't tell him. Then he let me go. Then, as luck would have it, he got playin'
cards with some gentlemen after dinner, about two or three o'clock, and never
stop all night; so I thought from appearance of things in the mornin'. They were
playin' and drinkin' together all night; so I did not go to his room till mornin'. I
had my excuse all made up--
Page 13
because he had company, and I was waitin', and got to sleep. At the same time I
didn't intend, and expect to take another whippin' in the mornin'.
"Then, in the mornin', I went up to call him to breakfast; and, as I knock at the
door to call him, to tell him that breakfast was ready, he told me to come in. He
came to the door, and I smelt his breath, and see from the way he spoke to me
that he had been drinkin'. He told me to come in, that he had somethin' for me.
At the same time, he took hold of my hand, and kind a pull me, and put a whole
handful of half-dollars in my hand. Then I knew he was drunk, but it surprise
me so that I didn't know what to think. At the same time, he was holdin' on to
me, and askin' me if I would come back. I told him, yes. But I thought he was so
drunk he would forget, and so I have all that money. I never had any money but
copper and five cents before; and, of course, my hand full of half-dollars looked
24.03.2006