Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States

Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery by Various 41Dey sold slaves jes' like people sell hosses now. I saw a lot of slaves sold on de auction block. Dey wouldstrip 'em stark naked. A nigger scarred up or whaled an' welted up wus considered a bad nigger an' did notbring much. If his body wus not scarred, he brought a good price. I saw a lot of slaves whupped an' I waswhupped myself. Dey whupped me wid de cat o' nine tails. It had nine lashes on it. Some of de slaves wuswhupped wid a cabbin paddle. Dey had forty holes in' em an' when you wus buckled to a barrel dey hit yournaked flesh wid de paddle an' every whur dere wus a hole in de paddle it drawed a blister. When de whuppin'wid de paddle wus over, dey took de cat o' nine tails an' busted de blisters. By dis time de blood sometimeswould be runnin' down dere heels. Den de next thing wus a wash in salt water strong enough to hold up anegg. Slaves wus punished dat way fer runnin' away an' sich.If you wus out widout a pass dey would shore git you. De paterollers shore looked after you. Dey would cometo de house at night to see who wus there. If you wus out of place, dey would wear you out.Sam Joyner, a slave, belonged to marster. He wus runnin' from de paterollers an' he fell in a ole well. Depateroller went after marster. Marster tole' em to git ole Sam out an' whup him jes' as much as dey wanted to.Dey got him out of de well an' he wus all wet an' muddy. Sam began takin' off his shoes, den he took off hispants an' got in his shirt tail. Marster, he say, 'What you takin' off you clothes fer Sam?' Sam, he say, 'Marster,you know you all can't whup dis nigger right over all dese wet clothes.' Den Sam lit out. He run so fas' henearly flew. De paterollers got on dere hosses an' run him but dey could not ketch him. He got away. Marstergot Sam's clothes an' carried 'em to de house. Sam slipped up next morning put his clothes on an' marster saidno more about it.I wus a great big boy when de Yankees come through. I wus drivin' a two mule team an' doin' other wurk onde farm. I drove a two hoss wagon when dey carried slaves to market. I went to a lot of different places.My marster wus a preacher, Billy Boone. He sold an' bought niggers. He had fifty or more. He wurked thegrown niggers in two squads. My father wus named Isham Boone and my mother wus Sarah Boone. MarsterBoone whupped wid de cobbin paddle an' de cat o' nine tails an' used the salt bath an' dat wus 'nough. Plentybesides him whupped dat way.Marster had one son, named Solomon, an' two girls, Elsie an' Alice. My mother had four children, three boysan' one girl. The boys were named Sam, Walter and Andrew, dats me, an' de girl wus Cherry.My father had several children cause he had several women besides mother. Mollie and Lila Lassiter, twosisters, were also his women. Dese women wus given to him an' no udder man wus allowed to have anythingto do wid 'em. Mollie an' Lila both had chilluns by him. Dere names wus Jim, Mollie, Liza, Rosa, Pete an' Ican't remember no more of 'em.De Yankees took jes' what dey wanted an' nothin' stopped 'em, cause de surrender had come. Before desurrender de slave owners begun to scatter de slaves 'bout from place to place to keep de Yankees from gittin''em. If de Yankees took a place de slaves nearby wus moved to a place further off.All I done wus fer de Rebels. I wus wid 'em an' I jes' done what I wus tole. I wus afraid of de Yankees 'causede Rebels had told us dat de Yankees would kill us. Dey tole us dat de Yankees would bore holes in ourshoulders an' wurk us to carts. Dey tole us we would be treated a lot worser den dey wus treating us. Well, deYankees got here but they treated us fine. Den a story went round an' round dat de marster would have to givede slaves a mule an' a year's provisions an' some lan', about forty acres, but dat was not so. Dey nebber didgive us anything. When de war ended an' we wus tole we wus free, we stayed on wid marster cause we hadnothin' an' nowhere to go.We moved about from farm to farm. Mother died an' father married Maria Edwards after de surrender. He didnot live wid any of his other slave wives dat I knows of.