Some one notified the magistrate at Bryantown of the
brutality. He interfered in the treatment of this slave, threatening
punishment. He was untied, he ran away, was caught by the constable,
returned to his owner, melted sealing wax was poured over his back on
the wounds inflicted by him, when whipping, the slave ran away again and
never was caught.
"There was a doctor in the neighborhood who bought a girl and installed
her on the place for his own use, his wife hearing of it severely beat
her. One day her little child was playing in the yard. It fell head down
in a post hole filled with water and drowned. His wife left him;
afterward she said it was an affliction put on her husband for his sins.
"During hot weather we wore thin woolen clothes, the material being made
on the farm from the wool of our sheep, in the winter we wore thicker
clothes made on the farm by slaves, and for shoes our measures were
taken of each slave with a stick, they were brought to Baltimore by the
old mistress at the beginning of each season, if she or the one who did
the measuring got the shoe too short or too small you had to wear it or
go barefooted.
"We were never taught to read or write by white people.
"We had to go to the white church, sit in the rear, many times on the
floor or stand up. We had a colored preacher, he would walk 10 miles,
then walk back. I was not a member of church. We had no baptising, we
were christened by the white preacher.
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