At that time I did not know how to speak English; French was
the language spoken in my household and by the people in the parish.
"Baton Rouge, situated on the Mississippi, was a river port and stopping
place for all large river boats, especially between New Orleans and
large towns and cities north. We children were taken out by the sisters
after school and on Saturdays and holidays to walk. One of the places we
went was the wharf. One day in June and on a Saturday a large boat was
at the wharf going north on the Mississippi River. We children were
there. Somehow, I was separated from the other children. I was taken up
bodily by a white man, carried on the boat, put in a cabin and kept
there until we got to Louisville, Kentucky, where I was taken off.
"After I arrived in Louisville I was taken to a farm near Frankfort and
installed there virturally a slave until 1864, when I escaped through
the kindness of a delightful Episcopalian woman from Cincinnati, Ohio.
As I could not speak English, my chores were to act as a tutor and
companion for the children of Pierce Buckran Haynes, a well known slave
trader and plantation owner in Kentucky. Haynes wanted his children to
speak French and it was my duty to teach them. I was the private
companion of 3 girls and one small boy, each day I had to talk French
and write French for them. They became very proficient in French and I
in the rudiments of the English language.
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